Preparations for War
by Kizmet
Summary: Chasing Ideal #4: As Thanos' armada approaches the Earth humanity prepares to fight for it's survival. Warning! Pro-Accords
1. Long Days and Good Deeds

**Notes:** I've been posting side-stories over at AO3 that I haven't put up here due to lack of feedback and the occasional "Why do you hate Steve" PM making it not worth the effort to put extras here. However a few of the one shots ended up having significant world building scenes that will leave holes in the next main story if I don't post them.

Credit to Agnidivya's comments for prompting this story. I've assumed in other places that the Avengers do help out during natural disasters and always have but there's no substitute for showing it. The disaster in story is drawn from the 1999 Vargas Tragedy in Venezuela.

 **Good Deeds and Long Days**

 **Disclaimer:** Premise and characters belong to Marvel, I'm just playing with them.

* * *

 _The heavy, unseasonable rain had been falling on the town of Cerro Grande for days. As the night of the 16th progressed the rain saturated the hillsides, in areas the soil became a slurry and broke loose, sliding downward. The streams above the city flooded their banks and the water became thick with sentiment from the slides as it rushed down the hills toward the sea. The roaring, froth barely slowed upon reaching the Caraballeda fan, the flat expanse at the foot of the mountains built by thousands of earlier floods dropping their load of sentiment before becoming one with the sea but something new had been added to the plain since the last great flood: A city. Man in his arrogance had thrown up dozens of skyscrapers in the path of the flood. The thick, muddy waters had picked up rocks and branches, boulders and trees as it rushed downward toward the sea and the debris struck the alluvial fan city like a wave of battering rams, smashing through houses and the the lower levels of apartment buildings. The shanty towns on the city's outskirts were swept away in minutes. Then, back in the mountains, in the early hours of the morning the ground beneath the Cerro Grande itself gave way sending whole buildings into the raging torrent. And the torrential rains continued to fall._

"Peter!" FRIDAY sent an urgent buzz over the Tower's intercom to wake the teen. "Avengers Assemble!"

Adrenaline cleared the fuzz from Peter's brain and he scrambled out of bed, opening the silvery suitcase holding his Spider-Man gear, he dressed quickly. On his way to the door May hugged him and shoved a warmed breakfast burrito into his hand. "Be careful," she said.

The elevator rushed Peter to the hanger level. Colonel Rhodes was in the process of levering himself out of his wheelchair into War Machine while Vision and, to Peter's surprise, Harley Keener and Happy Hogan stood by, the later two already in armor. Carol Danvers and Alexei Shostakov were on one video screen, the Avenger Compound and several younger Enhanced, early signees to the new SHRA, visible in the background. Hope van Dyne and Hank Pym occupied another screen, checking in from the West Coast, while T'Challa and his Dora Milaje called in from Wakanda and Everett Ross represented the UN subcommittee. Several of Maria Hill's people rushed about the hanger prepping the quinjet for take-off. Pepper, cradling baby Nettie against her shoulder stood quietly by the elevator.

"I'll debrief you in the air," Rhodes said. "We're going to need all hands on deck. Danvers, take anyone who's passed their basic certifications. Hank, we'll need you at Pym Tech for data analysis. Let's move."

Peter followed War Machine onto the Avengers quinjet and belted in. One of the former S.H.I.E.L.D. agents piloted the jet. Out the window Peter saw other aircraft taking off.

"Okay folks," Rhodes resumed. "We're getting reports of flooding and extensive debris flows from the state of Vargas. Early intel say tens of thousands impacted. There are whole towns washed away in the floods. FRIDAY's moving SI and Avengers' satellites into place. Ross, there may be other satellites up there, get the UN on the finding out who owns 'em, I'd like approval for FRIDAY to take them over but, barring that, get whatever data they'll feed us.

"There are people swept out to sea. If we don't get them soon they won't last . Captain Marvel, take any fliers you've got and start making passes at five miles out. Vision, you, Harley and I are with them. Harley, let FRIDAY man the armor, you're only here to take care of the coaxing."

FRIDAY made a rude noise.

"FRI, don't argue," Rhodes cut her off. "You get frustrated when humans aren't rational under pressure. Take your cues from Harley on handling the civilians but don't open the armor for anything."

"Ronin, you're in charge on the ground. There are local police and military forces evacuating the area, we'll be working in concert with them. Hill's on her way, she'll coordinate and be your point of contact. I want the Avengers focused on rescues. Happy, the armor's weight is going to be a disadvantage for a non-flier like you but your sensors can still be a big help in directing others. Wasp, join the ground team when you catch-up, you're too small to carry anyone while you're in the air."

"I'm getting reports of at least three local Enhanced already on site," Everett said.

"Have whoever's closest get 'em a headset and get them on our frequency. The sooner we're coordinating with them the better," Rhodes said.

The fliers bailed out before they made land, joining the small number of boats braving the storm to search the waters for survivors. War Machine, Vision and Iron Man split up to avoid wasting resources by overlapping their sensors while the organic fliers arrayed themselves between the trio and were soon busy pulling people from the water. After occupying the last of the organic fliers near her FRIDAY spotted two more life signs. She and Harley followed them to a small child clinging to the neck of a large dog.

Carefully FRIDAY lowered the armor to hover just over the surface of the water. "How are we going to do this?" Harley asked as he felt FRIDAY making continuous small adjustments to hold their position despite the wind and rain. "It worked so hard to save her, we can't just leave it."

"If the kid climbs on board we can make another pass and grab the dog," FRIDAY decided. "The thigh joint will make a fairly secure grip for the child. Once she's there, I can get one of the rescue straps around her to keep her from falling."

Harley smiled reassuringly and hoped it showed in his voice. "Can you grab my foot and climb up?" he asked.

The child only looked up blankly and held tighter to the exhausted dog's fur.

"Hey," Harley tried again. "Wanna get out of that water? Not that it's much drier up here, honestly."

"I've got more life signs," FRIDAY said. "I'm going to grab the kid and hope for the best for the dog."

"Call whoever's next closest," Harley said cutting the external mike. "I- If the kid freaks out on us we could drop her. Can you translate for me?"

"Yes," FRIDAY said.

"Okay let's try again," Harley said. "Princess your dog's looking awfully worn out. I bet he'd like a nice warm blanket on a dry boat. But we can't get him out of the water until we get you out. So can you climb up on my boot, please? Your dog's really tired. He needs a break."

Finally the child timidly reached up and grabbed the armored boot. While FRIDAY held the armor steady the little girl pulled herself up until she was clinging to the leg of the armor, standing on the boot. "Okay Princess, hold on really tight," Harley said. And FRIDAY took the armor up, once they had some altitude she cut thrust to one hand and quickly wrapped a securing strap around the child even as the wind sent them into a spin. Once done FRIDAY reignited the palm repulsor and swooped around to get a little momentum before skimming over the water to grab the dog. FRIDAY cradled the dog against the armor's torso, then flying unsteadily due to the wind and the load they headed for the nearest rescue boat.

* * *

"Middletown High," the secretary at Peter's school said as she answered the phone.

"This is May Parker, calling on behalf of my nephew Peter. Please excuse him from classes for the next few days," May said.

"Is he ill?" the secretary asked with concern.

"Oh no," May said. "The September Foundation is helping out with the flooding in Venezuela, Ms. Potts asked for volunteers from the SI staff and Peter wanted to help. I thought it was a great idea, worth missing a few days of school for."

"Um-"

"Don't worry, I'll make sure he catches up on his homework as soon as he's done," May said breezily.

The secretary and vice principal were looking up the disaster coverage online and talking about Peter when Liz Allen stopped by the office twenty minutes later to pick up a tardy slip.

* * *

"... So we're all going to SI after school to see if they need any more volunteers. Harry, you should come, everyone misses you," Liz rambled. Then she gulped, "Don't hang up, Harry. I didn't mean to mention Peter."

Harry took a deep breath and tried to shut out his father's last tirade about what an ungrateful, worthless, _unconvincing_ disgrace he was.

Norman's lawyer and a Goblin spotting during trial had been enough to secure reasonable doubt about whether or not Norman had been behind the mask during the Goblin's earlier attacks on the city but there'd been no way for him to wriggle out of charges regarding the assault on Peter and the threat against May. Norman's claim that he'd been defending his home from a trespasser fell on deaf ears considering that he'd not only hospitalized a sixteen-year-old friend of his son's, he'd gone after Peter's widowed guardian after Peter had been beaten so badly he couldn't stand. There was still an active counter suit in which OsCorp was accusing Stark Industries of putting ideas into the head of an impressionable teenager to use him to spy on their business rival but the extent of Peter's injuries and the earlier incident of violence against him left both judge and jury feeling particularly unsympathetic toward Norman. Harry had ended up having to testify in a last ditch effort to dispel the impression that Norman was an abusive parent and Harry's testimony hadn't softened anyone's attitude toward his father.

"It's okay," Harry quickly assured Liz. "Yeah, things are all weird between Pete and I now and probably for a long time to come. But it's not like I'm going to go nuts if I hear his name or something."

'Awkward,' Harry thought to himself. 'Is that really the word for it when you're wondering if prison's actually a major stumbling block for your dad putting a hit on your best friend? Peter knew what Dad's like, why'd he have to be so stupid?'

"So Pete's helping out?" he said.

"Yeah," Liz said. "It's terrible, the Red Cross thinks maybe as many as fifty thousand people could have died. The whole class is going to go see if there's anything we can do to help out. When we were talking about the disaster in class Felicity was the biggest advocate of us helping out but I think Flash pointing out that we have a geometry exam tomorrow might have actually have been the deciding argument. Gwen says it probably won't be exciting if they do take us as volunteers but even if it's boring we're doing something good and that's what counts right?"

"Yeah," Harry said thoughtfully. "That's what counts."

* * *

Several of the more intractable members of the SI board had cornered Pepper in her office around midmorning after the Avengers had left for Venezuela. "Yes, I did tell the R&D team to gather up every last working 'own the night' prototype sensor and be on the second wave of planes," Pepper said, her tone implying light curiosity about why they were wasting her time with this.

"You can't just abandon all our business ventures to do charity work."

"Abandon?" Pepper asked her eyes narrowing. "Is that what you think I'm doing? The rain in Vargas hasn't abated, in fact it's getting considerably worse. Rescue efforts are floundering due to inclement conditions, the rescuers can barely see their own feet let alone find the people who need them, even the Avengers are struggling. Since we don't make weapons anymore the military has asked us to focus sensors so they can fight in any conditions, can you think of a better field test?"

"Er, um, there is that."

"And I suppose you aren't interested publicity attached to being able to say that it was Stark Tech saving lives down there either?" Pepper asked archly.

"Of course. We'll just let you get back to what you were doing."

Pepper's phone rang not long after she'd cleared her office of nay-sayers. "Stark Industries, Virginia Potts speaking."

"Hi, um this Harry Osborn. I, um, heard about SI helping out with the flooding down in Venezuela and well, I was thinking, patent dispute aside, OsCorps' gliders could be useful right? They're small maneuverable personal craft with hover capability and enough lift to handle a passenger."

"What are you suggesting Mr. Osborn?" Pepper asked.

"I've got over a dozen working prototypes in storage and five test pilots on the payroll," Harry said forcing his nervousness back. "Can we work something out with the lawsuit so I can send them out to help? Also, they're not long range craft and OsCorp doesn't have the clearances the September Foundation has so I could use some help with transportation as well as the lawsuit."

Pepper found herself smiling, "I don't think I see any serious roadblocks preventing you from helping out Mr. Osborn. Just make sure your pilots pack their rain-slickers." She knew that if the gliders performance was exceptional her patent suit would likely end with OsCorp paying royalties while the military got the gliders but it had always been just a matter of time before technologies similar to the Iron Man tech were developed. Tony had estimated ten to fifteen years and they were currently sitting at seven but he'd made his estimate before Vanko and before Hammer got his grubby, not well secured, paws on War Machine. "I'll send my lawyers over with some papers excluding non-profit, humanitarian efforts from the cease and desist on the operation of the gliders."

* * *

With Felicity Hardy leading the way, Liz Allen, Gwen Stacy and Flash Thompson and a few dozen of their classmates made their way to the receptionist's desk at Stark Industries. "Hi!" Felicity said brightly. "We heard that the September Foundation was asking for volunteers to help out with the Vargas Flood? Where do we sign up?"

The receptionist smiled warmly. "Well first we need you to fill out these forms. Due to SI's defense contracts we need to do a quick background check on everyone allowed on the premise. We'll also need a permission slip from your parents if any of you are under eighteen."

The teens exchanged a disappointed look, "Thanks," Liz said recovering her aplomb after the small set back of paperwork and parental approval needed. "A friend of ours, Peter Parker is already helping, could we maybe drop in and see what he's up to?"

"I can't let you on the premise without the proper paperwork," the receptionist said apologetically. "You could call Mr. Parker and he could come out to the lobby to talk to you."

"Actually Peter's out," a new voice said.

The teens turned, "Amadeus, we didn't know you were here!" Liz greeted the other boy cheerfully.

"Yeah, everyone assumed you were skipping again," Gwen added and Flash snorted. In the month since Amadeus had joined their class he'd missed nearly as many days as he'd attended.

"So what have they got you doing and where's Peter?" Felicity asked.

"Unfortunately, there hasn't been much call for a hacker-extraordinaire," Amadeus admitted. "So I'm packing boxes, making up care packages to ship down to the people who were displaced. Peter's the lucky one, he volunteered early so he's down in Vargas, most likely unpacking and distributing the care boxes."

* * *

Spider-Man scaled the exterior of a listing, five story apartment building glad that the rain didn't seriously hinder his wall-crawling. The bottom floor of the building was completely buried in sentiment, the second was partially underwater and the structure was regularly being battered by debris caught in the flood waters threatening it's already questionable stability.

"Move fast, we won't be able to hold position long," one of the officers in the police boat that had brought him there shouted as the man gunned the motor to keep the flood waters from pushing the boat out to sea.

"Got it!" Spidey shouted back. "This leaning tower has no tourist appeal." He crawled in a window and shouted, "School bus is waiting! Get a move on!"

In few moments the people who'd taken shelter in the building believing it's height would make it a safe place to weather the storm began trickling in. Spider-Man created a webline between the police boat and the window. He showed the first few how to use it as a zip-line then went to search the rest of the building for stragglers as they made their escape.

Spidey returned to shouting. "You can't leave us here!"

He noticed his line was slack and stuck his head out the window, "What's the problem?" he shouted down to the officers on the boat.

"Spider-Man, the weight is too much. Come, we'll send another boat for the rest," the officer shouted.

Spidey glanced back at the people yet to be rescued. "Why don't I just wait here for the next ride?" he said. "You'll be quick right?"

"As soon as we can," the officer said.

As the boat motored away Spidey tried smiling at the remaining strandees, "So, anybody got a bottle to spin? It'd help pass the time." Only a few of the others even bothered to turn away from the window as they stared after the boat disappearing into the rain. It was only about ten minutes later when the building began to shake under repeated blows. Spidey ran to an upstream window and his jaw dropped. "That's gotta be a whole town," he exclaimed at the sheer volume of timbers and roof segments coming at them. The already listing building began to shift even further from vertical and several people screamed. Spidey glanced around then pointed at a nearby building. "I think that one looks a little more sound, anybody want to relocate?" Spidey was practically trampled as people crowded around him.

As the debris continued to pound the building Spidey led his group of strandees up to the next floor and shot a webline across to the next building. While the building shook and groaned, listing further and further Spidey helped the others slide across to the, hopefully, safer building one after another. There were only five people left when Spidey saw a boulder caught up in the silt laden current heading toward them like a cannonball. "Oh shit!" Spidey swore and he lifted a kid to the line, wrapping the legs of a pair of jeans around the kid's forearms before shoving him out over the gap. The boulder struck as Spidey reached for the next person. With a screech the building gave way.

Spidey grabbed a little girl and held her tight as he threw himself out of the collapsing building. For a moment they were falling through a hailstorm of broken masonry then they hit the water with a painful splat. The current spun them around and tried to pulled them down. Spidey pulled the girl against his chest and kicked for the surface but there was no light, nothing to tell up from down.

For several long moments Spidey swam only hoping he'd reach air soon. Then he was slammed into a wall. It knocked what little air he had left but he was glad of the reference point. Using his free arm he scrambled up the wall. His head broke the surface and he gasped for air. He pulled himself and the girl a little higher and found a window opening on a floor above the water level. Caked with mud from head to toe Peter shoved his mask clear of his mouth as he slumped against the wall and laughed. "We made it!"

Then he looked down at the girl cradled to his chest and saw her temple had been caved in, her dead eyes were open and staring up at him. Unable to react, Peter knelt there holding her. Time passed. Slowly Peter became aware that Ronin was shouting his codename over the comms while FRIDAY was whispering his real name in his ear and making wiring in his suit send out small shocks.

"She's dead," Peter said dully.

"Xyebo," Ronin swore quietly. "Spider-Man, we will grieve after. For now there are others who yet live, they must be our focus."

Peter nodded. Very gently he laid the girl down then pulled his mask back into place. "The ones I got out, they're in the building northwest of the one where they left us," he said. "I should- I'll go to the roof, figure out where I am."

"FRIDAY has your coordinates," Ronin said. "Help is coming."

"I- I should check the building," Peter said. "See if anyone else is holed up here."

"Go," Ronin ordered. "We'll be there soon."

* * *

As night closed in and the last traces of light faded from the skies the rescue workers gathered under canvas tents for a quick meal before crashing for the night.

Peter sat numbly on one of the benches, still in his mud-caked costumed, barely aware of the steaming bowl Ronin had put in front of him. Later, when the aerial rescue team trooped in, Harley and Rhodes took the spots on either side of Peter.

"There wasn't anything you could have done better," Rhodes said putting a comforting hand on Peter's shoulder. "You stayed, which frankly I wish you hadn't, you got everyone you could out of that building. Even as it was collapsing you were still thinking about saving lives. You were swept nearly a quarter mile downstream, that you managed to keep ahold of her through all that was amazing. There wasn't anything more you could have done to save her and I'm just glad we got you back in one piece."

"Does anyone know what her name was?" Peter asked.

"Not yet. Right now the priority's still on the living," Rhodes said. He looked Peter over carefully, "I want you and Harley bunking with me tonight. I need to see how you sleep and have a talk without the mask before we decide if you're going out again in the morning."

"Don't send me home!" Peter exclaimed. "I can still help!"

"I know you can and it might be the best thing for you but I need to make sure your head's still in the game," Rhodes said.

Harley, not knowing what to say, superstitiously edged closer to Peter until he was all but leaning against the older boy's side in an effort to provide comfort.

* * *

During the night the rain tapered off and the next day dawned clear. Walking out of their tents high on the steep hills above the city the rescuers looked out over a sea of devastation. The floodplain where the city had stood was completely inundated. Here and there a few of the more solidly constructed, luckier buildings remained standing but most of the city was lost.

"We've got reports of people buried by mudslides inland," Maria Hill announced as she grabbed a coffee and joined the assembled Avengers.

"Send me," Wasp said. "My bugs and I are the best equipped for that sort of search." With a resolute look she added, "Time is an issue and it would go faster with a second swarm, is there any way we can get Scott Lang in the field? Have Hank put a tracker on his suit or a remote disable, something I don't care, but recognize that he can help."

"He did turn himself in, that speaks in his favor," Hill allowed. "I'll talk to Ross about seeing if we can spring him for a little community service." She turned to Rhodes, "Speaking of the director, he's wanting a word with you Colonel."

Rhodes nodded, they finished strategizing for the day then he put the call through as soon as he was in the air. "Director Ross?"

"What were you thinking!" Everett exclaimed. "I've got reports Spider-Man nearly died yesterday and I hear you've got another kid even younger in the field!"

"The other boy is in the Iron Man armor, under these conditions he's safer here than on a school bus," Rhodes said.

"And Spider-Man?"

"This is in his range," Rhodes said. "He did good yesterday, nearly a hundred lives attributed directly to his actions. And yes, there was a dicey part but he got himself out of it and I've spoken to him about taking more care in the future."

"A six-year-old died in his arms. I want you to send him home and I want some sort of review to see how badly you scarred him," Ross insisted.

"Respectfully, I don't think that's the best response," Rhodes argued. "In my opinion he's coping. I wish it hadn't happened but sending him home while the crisis is still on would compound the damage. I think the best thing for him at this point is to go home knowing he did everything possible to save lives down here and he is saving people Director."

"But at what cost?" Everett asked.

"Call Samson," Rhodes offered. "Spider-Man talks to him twice a month, let him make the final call. If he thinks it's best for Spidey to go home I'll pull the kid. But I don't think he will. Spidey's got a better head on his shoulders than most people twice his age."

"Don't think I won't," Everett threatened. "And if the doctor doesn't agree with your assessment I want both those boys on the next plane to New York."

"Yes sir," Rhodes agreed. Then he fell back into formation with Captain. Marvel, Iron Man and a half dozen of the OsCorp gliders. Each of them carried a non-flying Avenger or one of the more skilled trainees as a passenger.

* * *

In a remote facility in Nevada the four renegade Avengers watched warily as Director Everett Ross stormed into their common area. "Lang!" Ross exclaimed. "Van Dyne thinks you won't just run away if we let you out of here for a few days to help us save some lives."

Scott jumped up and came over with Steve, Clint and Sam following right behind him. "What's going on?" he asked.

"You might have seen the news about the disaster in Venezuela? We've got massive flooding, people washed out to sea, miles of mudslides. Three cities and over a dozen towns devastated and the part of the state that isn't under water or mud is without power or potable water and cut off from most forms of transportation," Everett explained. "Van Dyne's using her ants to scout anywhere we've got a hint of life under the rubble but she says she could cover more ground with your help."

"I'll do it!" Scott exclaimed.

"We're putting a kill switch on your suit and a tracking device, you step one inch out of line and you'll be back here so fast your head will spin!" Everett threatened, "With another escape attempt added to your sentence."

"Not a problem," Scott agreed readily.

"We could all help," Steve pointed out.

Everett shrugged, "Yeah, you could help but it's not worth the risk of turning you loose. I've got plenty of strong men, frankly Danvers and Vision outclass you by a large margin." He turned to Sam, "With the OsCorp gliders we've got enough fliers," then Clint, "and I wouldn't know what to do with an archer if I had one."

"I'm trained in pararescue," Sam reminded and Everett stopped. Fully trained rescue personnel were not something he had an excess of.

Ten minutes later Everett led Scott and Sam up to the roof of the prison where he had a helicopter waiting. "Dr. Pym's waiting with your suit in San Francisco," he told Scott. "And I'll have the Falcon gear shipped to Vargas. There will be a kill switch on both suits." He glared at Sam, "Don't think I won't use it! Drop you right out of the sky if you try anything!"

Sam rolled his eyes, "Given what you described I'm going to be too busy working to 'try anything'."

Once they were in the air Sam put a hand on Scott's arm, "This isn't going to be like a battle," he said quietly. "At Leipzig everyone there could look out for themselves and be trusted not to lose their heads when things got dicey. Here, you're going to be surround by hurt scared people, you can't count on them doing the smart or sensible thing. Have you ever taken First Aid?"

"I took a class when Cassie was born," Scott said.

"Better than nothing," Sam said. "Mostly you're going to need to step lightly. You've got abilities no one else has but you're far from the expert when it comes to search and rescue. Listen and follow instructions."

The helicopter landed on the roof of Pym Technologies, Hank was already waiting for them. He glanced Sam over and frowned upon recognizing the man as the one most likely to have gotten Scott involved in the Avengers' Civil War but he gave Scott a grudging smile. "You've got work to do Lang," he said handing over the Ant-Man suit. "Listen sharp, it's going to be tempting to shrink people stuck under the rubble to get them out. Don't. The suit is designed to shield you from the side effects but your daughter's pet ant is the only living thing that's ever had Pym particles used on without the suit's shielding and I can't get that thing back to it's proper size. We don't to end up with a bunch of permanently miniaturized people so don't even consider using the particle disk on anyone," Hank continued while Scott suited up. "You're primary goal is to search people out and gather data so other rescue workers can get to them with minimum fuss but I have preshrunk stabilizer gear and had the ants pack it for you in case you need to shore up the rubble. You and Hope will both be relaying data back to me and I'll guide you from here. Don't get too creative."

"Thanks for giving me another chance," Scott said. "I won't screw it up."

"You better not," Hank said gruffly. "Your daughters' going to be watching. And by the way, she's a better assistant than you ever were."

"Cuter too," Scott agreed easily.

Hank handed over a specially designed suitcase, "Here's your swarm, flying ants with video equipment for data collection."

"I'll take good care of them," Scott promised.

"Take care of yourself," Hank said as Everett pointed Scott and Sam to a waiting quinjet. From San Francisco they flew directly to the disaster site. Sam's wings were waiting there along with Maria Hill. She eyed the two renegades disapprovingly. "Lang, there's a team waiting for you up river. Wilson you're under my command, try to remember how that works."

Scott nodded, he opened the briefcase then smiled as one of the ants flew up to perch on his hand. "Ant-ony VI, you remember me!" he said then shrank down and mounted up for the last leg of the trip. Twenty minutes later Ant-Man was on the job zooming through small cracks in the rubble along with the rest of his swarm, Hope and Hank's voices on the comm as the three of them coordinated efforts. To Scott it was like he'd only been half-alive for the last few months while he'd been without the suit, sitting in prison helpless to do anything worthwhile.

"There are heat sources twenty feet northwest of your current position," Hank said and Scott directed the swarm to break-up, he had each ant pick a different path for more comprehensive data collection. Back in San Francisco Scott knew the data flowing in was massive as each ant sent back images and telemetry for Hank to collate and scale into a map of the collapse. Then he was through, there were three people huddled in the shelter of a standing wall, the far wall had collapsed and the roof leaned over their heads at an angle, there was a crack across the width of it which threatened to give way at any moment. Scott popped back to full sized and the trio flinched away from his light after days trapped in the dark. Their faces were hollowed and pinched looking and they barely seemed to know how to respond to his sudden appearance. "We're gonna get you out," Scott assured them. He handed over his canteen and the few snack bars he'd stashed in his pouch before joining the rescue. "You're going to have to sit tight for a little longer while some friends of mine map out the the best way to go, okay?"

"Scott," Hank barked over the comm. "Enough lollygagging. Hope's already been at work for thirteen hours, you've got a lot of catching up to do."

"That's my cue," Scott said. "I'm gonna go ahead and do some road clearing then you'll be out of here." He leaned over and patted the first person on the hand then shrank down.

"Five feet to your left," Hank ordered.

Scott jumped on board his favorite flying ant and flew through the maze of cracked concrete and broken timbers. "I see it," he said spotting a precariously balanced slab of rock. He pulled out several jacks that were shrunk even in proportion to his ant-sized self. He placed them carefully then enlarged them until they'd levered up the slab and stabilized the area.

"Eight feet ahead," Hank ordered and Scott scurried to obey.

Ant-ony VI flew around an overturned bedframe and past a wardrobe that was supporting what was left of the ceiling then landed. Scott dismounted and squeezed beneath the debris where the ceiling had collapsed completely. He pulled himself up using the knob on a busted dress drawer then shoved his way through a pile of destroy plaster board. He caught a piece of fabric and pulled himself up, intent on reaching the next spot Hank had identified as likely to cause further collapse as rescuers dug their way down. Under his feet the fabric turned wet and slippery, Scott stumbled and caught himself on a jagged white spar only to realized it was the broken end of a rib. For several moments it was all Scott could do not to vomit as he found himself clammering over a half buried human corpse.

"What's the hold up? You're almost in position," Hank snapped.

Scott shook his head. "On it," he said grimly. He took a deep breath then, using a seam in the body's shirt for a hand hold he climbed down the other side and kept going.

After another ten hours and three more rescues Hope grabbed Scott and took him back to the base-camp for meal and some sleep. "There were so many bodies," Scott said.

Hope took a second look and saw he was pale and shaken beneath the dirt he accumulated over the course of the day. "Come on," she said. Once they'd filled their trays she lead him over to sit at a table near Spider-Man. As they ate Scott realized that a number of the more experienced rescue workers were making a point of stopping by and talking to the young hero about their experiences when their best hadn't been enough and how they'd moved past it to keep doing the job.

"He lost a kid yesterday," Hope explained quietly. Scott studied the younger hero, Spider-Man's shoulders were hunched defensively even against the other rescuer's offers of comfort and while his mask was shoved up to allow him to eat he only remembered to put food in his mouth sporadically, mostly at the urging of the brown haired boy plastered to his side.

During a lull between people stopping by to check on Spider-Man Scott got up and walked over, "Um- hi," he said. "This is probably a crappy time but I figured I'm here and you're here and if I don't say it now next time will be even more awkward, plus it'll probably be for years from now. So um- I'm sorry about Leipzig. I didn't have a good reason for being there."

Spider-Man blinked up at him while Harley glared.

"Yeah, I know. 'Who are you?' I'm Ant-Man, Scott Lang, the big guy you took down at Leipzig," Scott said ruefully. "I wish I'd remembered that we were all good guys out there and fought that differently. So again, sorry."

"Shouldn't you be in jail?" the Harley demanded hatefully.

"They let me out to help," Scott said. "I'll have to go back once we're done here. You know, I think this is harder than any heroing I've ever done."

"Yeah," Spidey agreed. "I've never felt so inadequate before."

"Well, I can't say that, unfortunately," Scott admitted thinking of his daughter and the ways he'd failed her over and over again. "But, I know exactly what you mean."

* * *

When the rescue workers hit forty-eight hours without finding anything but bodies, Rhodes ordered Peter and Harley home. The two boys arrived back at the tower, dead on their feet and wearing what felt like pounds of dirt. May, Marlena, Mercedes, Pepper and Nettie met them at the hanger.

"Harley!" Mercedes shrieked as her brother unexpectedly wrapped her in a hug the moment he saw her without a single thought to the mud and clay covering him.

"Just glad to see you, sis," Harley sighed, not letting go even as she squirmed.

After a moment it hit Mercedes that her brother wasn't just trying to get her dirty and she stopped struggling, wrapping her arms around him in turn, "Glad you're back even if you do stink," she said as their mother joined the hug.

"I've gotta go shower," Peter said as he evaded May's attempt to hug him.

May traded a worried look with Pepper, "Well, maybe dinner will help?" Pepper offered uncertainly. "Group dinner."

May followed Peter back to their rooms, "We're having pizza," she called through the door as he went to change. "Should I order your usual?"

"Yeah, thanks," Peter called back after several moments.

To everyone's surprise Captain Stacy showed up with the pizzas, "Just wanted to see you back with my own eyes," he told Peter. "I read the reports, you did a lot of good work there." He glanced over at Harley, "You too."

"Thank you," Peter replied dutifully.

"Nature's bigger than any of us," Stacy said with sympathy in his eyes. "I know how easy it is to fixate on the losses but you did great."

Peter nodded then helped to carry the pizzas inside. "Have you called Cassie lately?" he asked Mercedes after they'd eaten.

Mercedes looked confused. "Why don't you vid-call her?" Marlena suggested looking at Peter.

"Yeah sure," Mercedes agreed.

When the call connected they discovered Cassie bouncing around excitedly. "My dad's helping people again!" she exclaimed. "And Dr. Hank says I'm his assistant so I can come with him when he goes to get the suit back! I get to see Daddy for a little!"

As he listened to the last of the kids in his circle chattering happily a measure of tension went out of Peter's shoulders. "I'm going to crash," he declared after several minutes.

May made her excuses as well. After Peter had gone to bed she started a pot of coffee and settled in to wait. About three hours later Peter stumbled out of bed and dropped onto the couch, burying his head in his hands. May sat down beside him and wrapped an arm around his shoulders, pulling him against her. "I couldn't save her," Peter said. "I didn't even know her name but she was just tiny, like Mercedes or Cassie."

"I know," May replied quietly. "But you did everything you could. You have to let her go."

"I was right there, why couldn't I save her?"

May squeezed him tighter and, finally, Peter let himself cry. "It doesn't feel like it now but you're going to be okay," May promised rubbing circles into his back. "You're going to be okay."


	2. Preparations for War

**Notes:** So 2013 (IM3), Tony blows up his armors, recognizes he has PTSD, tries talking to Bruce who falls asleep and says "Not that kind of doctor." In 2014 Tony is conspicuously absent from CA:WS but by 2015 (AoU) Tony's been back with the Avengers for a while and has the Iron Legion.

Something changed between IM3 and AoU or Tony wouldn't have rebuilt the armor. It could have been as simple as he missed being Iron Man or Steve and Co. asked him for help after rediscovering HYDRA but I've added the assumption that Tony did seek real help with his PTSD after failing to get any support from Bruce and that while he might have let Pepper think he was giving up Iron Man, really he was just stepping back until he had the PTSD under control.

 **Preparations for War**

Peter Quill stood at a small podium in front of the United Nations and tried not to contemplate the odd turns his life had taken to end up standing here. Remembering the ten-year-old boy he'd been the last time he stood on Earth the idea that he'd grow-up to address the United Nations was harder to believe that the whole abducted by aliens part. 'What kid old enough to remember watching E.T. didn't daydream about making contact with alien lifeforms at least once and awhile?' Peter thought 'Having the whole world waiting to hear what you had to say? That's something else.'

Then there was the message he had to deliver. Peter looked out at the Earth's leaders and the camera that would spread his words to the rest of the population. "The Nova Empire is not your enemy. I know it's a bitter pill to swallow, hearing that your entire planet could be considered collateral damage in a larger war. I grew up here, I'm used to thinking of this place as the center of the universe myself, but it's not. The Nova Empire consists of over seven hundred inhabited star systems, the population cleared ninety trillion sentient beings in during the last census, taken eight years ago. I know it's all just numbers and the Earth is your home, but those are the numbers that Nova-Prime has to look at when deciding how to fight Thanos.

"Thanos already controls an area of space nearly six times the size of the Nova Empire. As far as we've been able to determine he's never lost a war. He's immortal, the last survivor of an ancient race, as legend has it he's the last survivor because he personally saw to it that the mantle of his home world was burnt away until all that was left was the planet's molten core. He went on to assemble massive armies that blazed their way across the stars like an intergalactic Genghis Khan. He's the undisputed ruler of one lobe of the galaxy. Alone, Thanos is the equal to most armies assembled in the history of the universe and he is not alone. Among his conquests he counts an insectoid race that parasitically lays eggs in other species, resulting in their young absorbing some of the traits of the host species and a techno-organic species that is similarly capable of merging with other species. The Chitauri are the end result of hundreds of generations of manipulated evolutions using those two races to create a hive-minded, techno-merged army capable of integrating the strengths of any race it conquers and Thanos has been at this for a long time."

"The Borg, only uglier?" Peter heard someone whisper to their neighbor but the reference was lost on him.

"That is the enemy the Nova Empire is facing off against. Destroying the Earth would shield the Nova Empire from Thanos' depredations indefinitely, that's why Nova-Prime can't just take it off the table. But fighting a bottleneck war against Thanos here may be the best chance we're ever going to get to defeat him. So I repeat the Nova Empire is not your enemy. They're going to send troops, thirty percent of the Nova Corps and they've opened diplomatic channels with every other space-going civilization that we know of, including their bitter enemies the Kree, seeking allies against Thanos."

"The thing is, the whole of Earth is going to end up a battlefield and even if we give it our best shot we could still lose and the Earth would be destroyed to stall Thanos. I'm not just here today to warn you to start preparing for war, Nova-Prime is offering to evacuate Earth's non-combatants. Anyone who wants to leave will be offered refugee status in the Nova Empire. The first troop ships will arrive in six months with the Corps' engineers to start building defenses around Earth. Those same ships can take the first refugees back with them."

"Ultron," Rhodey, sitting in the back of the room, muttered.

"What?" Carol asked, leaning close so their words didn't carry.

"They're going to build us what Ultron was meant to be," Rhodes said. "If we'd spent the time to work through what had Tony spooked instead of just berating him because the damned scepter took over what he was trying to do maybe we wouldn't be counting an alien empire to provide Earth's defenses."

* * *

For several moments after the TV switched to an ad the renegade Avengers sat in silence. "Damn, and we wrote Tony off as a paranoid, nut-case for building Ultron," Clint remarked.

Sam frowned at Clint's language, "Stark had PTSD, he was not a 'paranoid nut-case'."

Clint rolled his eyes, "Totally blew past the point _Counselor_. I just wanted to point out 'a suit of armor around the Earth' is starting to sound pretty good." He gave Steve a sour look, "Now that it turns out that he wasn't 'trying to win a war before it starts'. The war started in 2012 when Loki first stepped through that portal and started fucking with people's brains."

"So you're suddenly in favor of Ultron?" Steve demanded irritably. "You and Natasha were the ones telling me not to listen to anything Tony said about the portal."

"Why not?" Sam asked. "Stark was the only one with firsthand knowledge of the Chitauri forces."

"Because he was unreliable," Clint said. "When we got the band back together to hunt down HYDRA after S.H.I.E.L.D. imploded Tony was two months late to respond to the call to assemble. He said it was because he'd blown up all his armors. It took him three months to build the first armor in a cave while he was pretending to build bombs for his kidnappers so Nat and I called bullshit on that and started digging. Turned out he left us hanging to whine to some shrink about the Battle of Manhattan. If Tony couldn't hack it, couldn't be there when we needed him, he had no business being an Avenger but without his backing there were no Avengers. When he finally decided that he wanted in what could we do about it?"

"Um" Scott raised his hand like the shy school kid, "Wouldn't oversight help with something like that?"

"Since the rest of us all _knew_ that the threat from the Chitauri ended when the portal closed and Tony was just being dramatic, it only made sense to ignore his ravings," Clint continued over Scott. "Only now we find out, that fleet Tony saw on the other side of the portal? It's going to be on our doorstep in another several years and we can't ask Tony about what's coming because he's dead. Thanks to you."

"I should have told Tony about his parents, Siberia never should have happened. I never should have walked away from Tony without checking that he was really okay to get himself out of there. I should have figured out some way, any way of ending that fight without hurting him so badly, even if meant losing the fight. But why are you blaming me for listening to you when you said Tony was unreliable?" Steve demanded.

"Can we go back to the part where the root cause for not listening to Tony Stark is apparently because he benched himself while getting help with a mental health issue?" Sam interrupted. "Do you have any idea how often one my guys at the VA would come to group and admit they had known something was wrong but didn't get help until after it blew up because they were afraid that people would dismiss them if it got out that they'd talked to a mental health professional? And here you are telling me they're right to worry!"

"Could we go back to the part where there's an alien space fleet coming and we wasted five years of prep time because it's preparing for war that kills people, not being caught flat footed when the enemy shows up at your door?" Clint sniped bitterly. "Hey Cap, here's a reference from your time: Pearl Harbor. Was it preparing for war that got people killed there?"

"Would you stop putting words in my mouth," Steve snapped. "I said 'trying to win wars before they start', once you start setting yourself up to win the other side is going to try to do something to keep from being at a disadvantage and the next thing you know war is inevitable. You told me Tony was just being hysterical about the portal! And I thought Ultron was supposed to a peacekeeper program, how does it have anything to do with protecting Earth from aliens?"

"So why didn't you want to tell Stark about the Winter Soldiers before Leipzig?" Scott asked Sam. He tilted his body slightly away from Steve and Clint's quarrel.

Sam shrugged, "Wanda's influence is the easy answer but we've worked out that if she'd actively been trying to turn us against him Rhodes wouldn't have been immune. So I must have had my own issues with Tony Stark for her to latch on to."

Sam glanced over at Steve and Clint, their voices were steadily raising. Sam grimaced, he already knew the fight would quickly dissolve into 'Just a guy from Brooklyn,' which would only inflame Clint's temper further. He didn't know quite how it happened but somewhere along the line he'd stopped seeing Steve's Brooklyn bit as charmingly humble now it just left him vaguely disquieted for reasons he couldn't pin down. 'Clint needs to grow up and stop looking for someone to blame for his problems,' Sam thought as he started back toward his cell. For most of the day they were allowed the freedom to move between their cells and a common area.

Scott trailed after Sam like a puppy. "Yeah, um mine boil down to 'Hank told me never to trust a Stark' and well, watching Tony Stark on TV he pretty much came off like a rich bastard I'd really hate if I ever met him in person. So I skipped the part about 'if I ever met him in person' and went straight to the hating him part at Leipzig."

Sam sat down on his bunk and waved for Scott to grab the other end of it. He took a few moments to organizes the things that had come up in his sessions with Dr. Samson. "Tony Stark rebuilt my wings and I love them. Maneuverable like nothing else in the sky, they are everything they were ever promised to be and more. Stark Industries built the original wings my partner Riley and I both used and they didn't keep him safe. I can't help but wonder if Stark had been personally involved from the beginning would Riley be alive now?" Sam signed, "I don't want to be that guy. I know, rationally, it wasn't fair or right to blame Stark for Riley's death but a part of me did anyway. There's something temptingly satisfying about having a face, a name to pin the blame on."

Scott made an aborted gesture as if to reach out and pat Sam on the shoulder.

"We can't help how we feel, it's how we act that matters. That's what I told myself," Sam continued. He shrugged, "So what if I didn't like Tony Stark? When he came out to compound I'd put on my company manners. I made an effort to keep him from realizing I might harbor an irrational grudge against him. I'd say I was professional when I worked with Wanda, maybe I could have found a way to push her harder to get over her problems with him but I never said anything bad about him myself. No one ever said I had to like Tony Stark. The reality is I didn't know Tony Stark and I never once let that get in the way of not liking him."

"Yeah, I can see that," Scott said, thinking about how Hank's loathing for Howard Stark had colored his view of Tony Stark and that Scott had turned around and accepted that second-hand opinion as gospel. "I mean no one can expect you to like everyone."

"As long as you don't let it get in the way of getting the job done," Sam said with a guilty look. "After Berlin Steve asked my opinion about whether or not we should tell Tony Stark about the Winter Soldiers and I said Stark wouldn't believe us, that he'd let the Accords tie his hands. I let my prejudices about Tony Stark lead me to giving advice on the man when I didn't have any business offering an opinion. 'What could a guy like Tony Stark know about personal loyalty? About having a teammate's back no matter what?' That's what I was telling myself when I told Steve not to talk to Stark."

"But what about Rhodes?" Scott asked. "Weren't they like best buds?"

"Yeah, I don't know," Sam sighed. "Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes? That's the stuff of legends."

"And about six movies, half of them not even the made-for-television variety," Scott agreed.

"Tony Stark and James Rhodes? Not so much. I used to be Air Force, same as Rhodes. It wasn't that big of a world and he was notable." Sam shrugged, "There was always talk about what he got out of putting up with Stark. Maybe it wasn't true but it was always there."

"Well, Steve and Bucky, the sort of friendship you'd burn the world for seems a little less romantic looking back," Scott said quietly. "You know, on the five dead, thirty-some injured and billions of property damage. And there's the part where I might never get to see my daughter again. I signed on for world-in-peril, not Cap's bestie. Or maybe it's the whole hero thing that feels less romantic now." Scott sighed, "When Hank let me keep the suit I was thinking about fighting the bad guys, cheering crowds, saving the city… I don't know how you handled disaster relief on a regular basis."

Sam grimaced, "I used to get a lot of satisfaction from doing what I could, pulling off rescues only a few people in the world could have. After Riley died things changed, I changed. Instead of focusing on the lives I'd saved I started fixating on the ones I lost. I had to quit. I still wanted to help, that's why I got involved in working with PTSD groups at the VA, but I couldn't handle the pressure of being a PJ anymore. Then Steve came along and I could fly again. With Captain America calling the shots I didn't have to second guess myself or obsess about making the wrong call. I had my old certainty back... You should know it was me and my piss-poor advice that gets the lion's share of the blame for you being dragged into this," Sam told Scott. "I'm the one who called you in-"

"And I was insanely flattered that you thought of me given that I was stealing shit from you when we met," Scott said staunchly. "Good cause or not."

"I was the one who had the best shot at getting Steve and Stark on the same page before we went after Zemo," Sam said. "And I fucked it up."

Scott blew out a huge gust of air. "I'm sort of conscious of the fact we're stuck sharing tight quarters for the next couple years regardless of how this plays out," he said.

"I wish Steve and Clint would think about that," Sam muttered.

Scott flashed Sam a quick smile, "Don't we all."

* * *

Pepper walked into SI's R&D. She waited until everyone was staring at her then she took off one of the bracelets Tony had made for her and set it in the middle of the conference table. "I need this reverse engineered and scaled up to work with the full-sized arc reactors," she said. "Stark Industries is going into the business of making city-sized energy shields."

One of the engineers delicately picked up the bracelet and popped open the back panel.

"We're on a deadline folks," Pepper said. "The alien invasion is expect in the fourth quarter of 2019. Our goal is to have at least five hundred shielded cities ready to greet them."

* * *

Steve glanced at Dr. Samson uncertainly, "Clint and I got in another fight and um, it wasn't even really what we were fighting about but he said something. What he thought Tony was trying to do with Ultron wasn't what I thought Tony intended."

"Go on," Samson encouraged.

"I don't know that it matters either way," Steve hedged. "Whatever Tony wanted Ultron to be it doesn't change what it became."

"Why did you bring it up if it doesn't matter?" Samson asked.

"Because I should have known!" Steve exclaimed. "We blamed Tony for making a murder-bot but I don't know if he was trying to protect the planet from attack or build a benevolent version of Project Insight. I should know that! But it doesn't change anything.

"Everyone criticizes me for hanging onto the past, except when I don't! Wanda realized she'd been wrong to help HYDRA and Ultron, she couldn't change what she'd done in the past but she was trying to do better. She was capable of so much good but not if she didn't get the chance to show that she'd changed. Isn't what she was going to do in the future the important thing?"

"What thinking did Wanda change?" Samson asked curiously.

"Well, she realized that HYDRA and Ultron were the bad guys and we were the good guys," Steve said.

"All of you?" Samson asked.

"Expecting her to like Tony wasn't fair. She stopped trying to hurt him," Steve protested.

"Ignoring all arguments about whether or not she could reasonably hold Tony Stark responsible for her parents' death, did she stop trying to hurt him because she understood that revenge was wrong or because she didn't want to risk her relationship with the rest of you?"

"I don't know," Steve admitted.

"Or was it because her presence among the Avengers helped to drive him away? Was she consciously aware that she could take his friends from him simply by playing upon your sympathy for her after her brother's death?"

Steve looked away.

"Do you know if she felt remorse for the people she harmed while she was with HYDRA?"

"Of course she did."

"Did you ever talk to her about it?"

"Wanda isn't some sort of monster," Steve protested. "She was just trying to protect her country!"

"No," Samson said firmly. "That is why you volunteered for Project Rebirth. Wanda and Pietro Maximoff joined HYDRA to gain the power to hurt Tony Stark because they held him responsible for their parents' death."

Steve's mouth tightened, he turned away, physically rejecting what Samson was saying.

Samson sighed, "You're right you know: It is important that you never found out what Tony Stark hoped to accomplish by creating Ultron. That you never really talked to Wanda Maximoff about her past, about her moral structure, even when you knew that she'd only recently had the epiphany that working for a terrorist organization was bad. One of my main goals in working with you is to teach you to spot patterns of behavior that lead to unfavorable outcomes so you can change that pattern of behavior. Did you ever really, truly talk to Tony Stark about why he supported the Accords?"

Steve shook his head.

"I'd like you to tell me what the pattern of behavior is," Samson said gently.

Steve fidgeted in his chair, hands and feet moving restlessly. Samson waited without saying anything more. Five minutes stretched into ten.

"I was mad at Tony for not telling me things," Steve said finally. "After Ultron, I was mad because he hadn't told me. 'Sometimes my teammates don't tell me things.' But I don't ask and I don't listen to what they do tell me."

"Thank you," Samson said with relief.

* * *

"We're not going," Laura said. "We're staying on Earth."

"Because of me?" Clint asked. When he'd heard about the Nova Corps' offer to evacuate Earth's noncombatants his first reaction had been to worry that Laura and the kids would be swept off to the far end of the galaxy and he'd never see them again. Hearing her say they weren't going he worried that Laura had the same thought and his family would end up in the line of fire because of it… Or that they hadn't been given the option because of him.

"I'm not the running type," Laura said. "If I were I'd have headed for the hills the first time you came clean about exactly what you did for a living, instead I married you. The Earth is my home, I'm not giving it up."

"This isn't the same," Clint protested. "I won't be able to keep you safe with the wrong name on a marriage license and painting a red splotch across half my face when we go into town. From what I've been hearing on the news the whole planet's gonna end up a battleground."

"I know," Laura said. "I talked to Phil. When the time comes worrying about people with grudges against you will be fairly low priority next to worrying about becoming collateral damage. You're not the only S.H.I.E.L.D. agent with kids, when the war starts I'll retreat to a bunker with the other S.H.I.E.L.D. families, most of us stay-at-home spouses of agents have pretty thorough combat training. As a group, supplemented by a few agents, we'll form a defensible block for the kids. Don't worry about us, I can handle myself."

"You're not even considering that bugging out might be only safe choice?" Clint felt compelled to ask. "What I gathered from Quill's speech is that if things start getting dicey… Well, it'll be the WSC nuking Manhattan all over again, only without the convenient portal to shove the nuke through."

"Clint, it's decent of this Nova-Prime to offer us humans refugee status in his Empire, given how their government is considering blowing up our home but it won't come to that," Laura laughed. "That Peter Quill, he makes Thanos sounds like a real boogie-man but we have experience with him. The last time he sent an army after the Earth you and four friends kicked their butts. No one is seriously considering abandoning the Earth because the Chitauri are trying again."

* * *

The video appeared out of nowhere. When it first appeared on line Vision spent a few moments interrogating FRIDAY about it but the young AI pled ignorance, "I promised both the Boss-Lady and Colonel-Man I'd check with them before trying social engineering again!"

Dr. Helen Cho's first suspect was her only son. "Mom! Just because it's totally something my friends would do doesn't mean we actually did do it," Amadeus protested. "Everyone I know in the Rising Tide is scrambling to try to verify that it's for real."

The video came from a security camera, from the angle it was meant to cover the door. But the sound quality was good and Tony Stark's agitated pacing put him in and out of the camera's view as he spoke:

" _No I'm not being hysterical. Hysterical would be comparing them to a horde of locust or something poetic like that. I am telling you what I saw. The whale ships, about six deep in the z-axis and as far as I could see in the X and Y. You can see a candle at thirty miles on a dark night, but the whale ships don't produce lights so I was seeing off of reflected photons alone. My best guess is I could see ten mile out. They were spaced about one ship every ninety thousand square feet. That's roughly two hundred thousand ships and that's just what I could see… "_

 _A hubbub protests overrode Tony's voice and that's where the video ended._

* * *

Gamora reluctantly accepted the chair Quill pulled out for her as the two Guardians joined Rhodes, Danvers, Hank Pym, T'Challa, Romanov and Director Ross in a UN conference room with a view of the East River and beyond that, Brooklyn. Her posture radiated a constant readiness for battle.

"You told us Thanos needs the Earth," Rhodes said, skipping any pleasantries after a long look at Gamora. "What for?"

"Water, air," Gamora stated. "The best purifying systems in the galaxy still reach their limits eventually. Ships can only go so long without stopping on a planet with a living hydrologic cycle where they can replace overtaxed air and water with fresh. Normally it's not a big deal, but this area of space is unique. Quill told you about the fallout from the Kree-Skrull war."

"Seems like too many ships stopping by and the planet would be no better," Hank observed.

Gamora nodded, "You are correct, given the Earth's size and composition, Thanos can restock no more than a thousand ships a month without rendering the Earth useless to him."

"Some good news," Carol said. "Finally."

"He can only restock a thousand ships a month," Gamora pointed out. "He can send as many more as he wishes to sacrifice and if there is one thing you can count on with Thanos it is his willingness to sacrifice lives."

"Great," Rhodes sighed.

"However," Gamora added. "He is not thoughtlessly wasteful of his resources. The Earth is not his end goal, merely a waystation that he must take before expanding his war on life to the Nova Empire. Intergalactic warfare is a ponderous business. When ships travel at speeds exceeding that of light communication returns to its roots: The speed at which words travel is equal to that of messengers. The armada will adapt but slowly to your tactics."

"How about generals?" Rhodes asked.

"After Loki of Asgard's… creative liberties Thanos has been reluctant to allow his lieutenants much latitude. Knowing the fate that awaits Loki when he is returned, only those like myself who choose to turn against Thanos altogether would dare to go against his smallest order... Even if his methods are shown to be ineffective."

"How close are we to the limits of Thanos' range?" Danvers asked.

Gamora smiled toothily. "Thanos' troops will arrive on rationed supplies or recently woken from cryogenic sleep. If you can deny them the chance to restock they will die before making another port."

"Total warfare," T'Challa said gravely. "All who come must take the Earth or perish and there is no retreat for us either. This is our world and we will not be pushed from it."

"About that," Quill said. "Being an Earth expat in the Nova Empire isn't so bad. I wish you'd make a stronger effort to convince people to evacuate. The first Nova transport will arrive in four more months, with others following every other month. Now transports are basically boxes attached to very large engines. They'll bring troops and supplies to Earth and there's enough room in each ship to take a hundred and fifty million off planet in cyro pods on their return trip. Six ships a year for two years, that's nearly twenty five percent of the population that can be moved to safety before the first Chitauri heavy bombers arrive. People can come back after the war ends but we won't be able to make up empty outgoing berths later."

"The first two months will be the most critical," Gamora said. "The Chitauri heavy fighters will reach Earth before their Nova Corps equivalents and Earth must not fall before reinforcements arrive."

* * *

The TV anchor man looked into the camera with a grim expression. "Evidence of the massive army Peter Quill and his alien associates warned the Earth against two months ago had been independently verified. The following pictures from the Kepler and Webb telescopes show a massive fleet of ships, sufficient to block the light from distant stars as the armada passes through their systems. Careful analysis of astronomical images dating back to 2012 clearly shows this alien fleet moving toward Earth. If the alien armada continues at its present speeds it will arrive on Earth in the year 2020."

* * *

Dr. Pym looked uncomfortable as he stood up in front of the UN committee, "It's not what you asked for, not a way to fight but I think, with a little work, I could set up the means to shrink a city. There's an increasing number of people who are in favor of leaving the planet, this way they could get a head start on a new planet, bring their whole infrastructure with them."

"We could ensure the preservation of some of Earth's most historic cities," Hope said. "Like the people we can bring the cities back when it's safe but in the immediate future we have to be ready to accept that the Earth is going to take damage. The shields Stark Industries are developing will help but we can't shield the entire planet. It makes sense to move some of what must be protected out of the war-zone while we have the chance."

"Which cities? How can a call like that be made?"

* * *

"You look tired," Scott said when Hope came to visit him. "What's going on?"

"I never thought I'd be part of trying to evacuate the Earth," she said. "It feels wrong, feels like giving up. But… It's going to get bad Scott, even if we win the Earth will likely be under siege for years and the way the Guardians tell it, there's no reason for Thanos to ever stop coming. He won't die of old age, he has an empire that spans around a hundred thousand star systems, he's not going to run out of soldiers to throw at us."

"So people are really evacuating?" Scott asked. "Clint's wife made it sound like no one was worried."

"That was before we started getting confirmation from our telescopes," Hope said. "There's a massive army out there, Stark saw it back in 2012 but even people in a position to know buried their heads in the sand. Plans were made for another portal, another bottleneck battle but this time the Earth is the bottleneck and there's no closing it off without losing the planet.

"The UN is coming up with a series of criteria ranking the Earth's cities," Hope said. "Then the city votes. If seventy percent of the population chooses to go the city goes. We'll arrange land swaps for people from those cities that choose to stay."

* * *

"You asked for me?" Foggy Nelson asked Clint.

"I take it you've turned on the TV in the three months?" Clint said. "What do I need to do to be in a position to look after my family when War of the Worlds starts? Do I sign the Accords, kiss up to the second-string Ross, what?"

Foggy stared at the archer in disbelief, "Now you want to sign the Accords?"

"No, now I admit I don't give a damn about them," Clint said flatly. "Sign, don't sign? They're just pieces of paper. Nat told me I could sit this one out but Steve said he needed me." Clint's expression darkened.

"I don't understand," Foggy said shaking his head. "You don't care about the Accords one way or another, so why would you opt to act in defiance of the law?"

Clint looked back, equally puzzled, then his expression cleared. "Oh right, you actually believe laws mean something," he said. "Phil Coulson spent a lot of time trying to convince me of that and it wasn't a total waste of both our time, we eventually came to agree that people who aren't afraid of their own government are better off but…" Clint shrugged, "No matter how idealistic the government you can always find pockets ruled by petty dictators. If that guy's in charge of the whole country everyone suffers, if he's just the head of the household then his kids and wife suffer. When it came to the Accords Ross was the petty dictator and he was right at the top.

"Everyone tells me I shouldn't be mad at Tony for getting me locked up in the Raft, 'cause he was just following the law." Clint rolled his eyes, "Like not following a law isn't a choice. There were plenty of laws against the stuff my dad did and even more against how the guys in the circus really made their living. Then S.H.I.E.L.D. picked me up, they said they wanted to give me a second chance because I was underaged but you know what? I did exactly the same stuff for S.H.I.E.L.D. as I did for the Crime Circus, so from my point of view what they really did was hire me because they were impressed by my skills. They just couched it in a lot of bullshit about redemption and restitution to make themselves feel better. I'm an assassin, a sniper. I have been making a career out of shooting people since I was thirteen. It was illegal when some random fuck paid me to do it but morally just fine when S.H.I.E.L.D. was naming my targets... Until it turned out S.H.I.E.L.D. was HYDRA anyway. So we all went to work for Captain America, what could be safer than that? Then Thunderbolt Ross gets himself nominated as the Avengers' new boss." Clint shrugged, "I told Nat I could solve her Ross problem," he snapped his fingers, "like that. She said no thanks, Tony had it handled. Turned out he didn't.

"I was nineteen when Phil Coulson became my handler. He was the first person who made an effort to show me what S.H.I.E.L.D. was trying to accomplish, what I was a part of. At home not getting noticed was a necessity of survival. In the Circus you didn't eat if you didn't contribute. When S.H.I.E.L.D. picked me up they made it clear I could either follow their orders or sit in a cell. Phil was different, he wanted me to believe I could change the world for the better, even given what I'm good at. But you know how that worked out, HYDRA wormed it's way into S.H.I.E.L.D. and turned it rotten from the inside out. Too big, too many agendas to keep track of what everyone was up to, even for a sharp guy like Phil. I trusted Phil, I even trusted Fury, bastard that he is, and I still do trust them. I trust them to want to do the right thing but they couldn't tell the difference between the WSC being a bunch of cowards and being HYDRA. I hear from Nat that the new S.H.I.E.L.D./Not S.H.I.E.L.D. is tighter, fewer people, fewer agendas to keep track of. We tried that. Except it turns out Steven Fucking Rogers can have agendas too, when it comes to his best friend."

Foggy grimaced. "I do like him you realize that?"

"Who doesn't?" Clint asked. "Hell, as mad at him for getting us into this mess I still know he believed in what he was doing. I even agree that Barnes didn't deserve any of the shit that happened to him since falling off that train in WWII. After seventy years of mind wipes and torture the guy deserves to catch a break but not at the cost of my family. Barnes may be worth it to Steve, but not to me.

"Look, I don't care about the Accords. Good laws, good governments are better than poor ones, Phil taught me that, but good laws don't change that people are generally assholes. I'm an asshole, I should know. I liked Tony, he was fun to hang out with, he supported us when S.H.I.E.L.D. went belly up but I figured he had too many personal problems to trust him in the field. But, hey, it's not paranoia if they're really out to get you is it? I should have listened to the crap Tony was freaking out about. I didn't, a bunch of aliens are going to attack our planet we're a lot less prepared than we should be and so when they come I need to be with my family. Any of the Chitauri come their way? I shoot them, that is what I'm good at. Just tell me what I need to do to make that happen."

"You don't ask for much do you?" Foggy said shaking his head. "How much attention did you pay to Scott Lang's trial? It's the reason your lawyer didn't try the 'Captain America made me do it defense'. What came out during your, Lang and Wilson's trials, what you just confirmed again, is that you're not capable of complex moral judgements. Whether you care about the Accords or not you were part of killing five people, assaulting thirty-two more and doing several billion dollars of property damage, ostensibly to prevent people with agendas from being put in a position to give you orders… Unless it's Steve.

"This is in spite of a strong precedent that following orders is not sufficient excuse for morally abhorrent behavior. Steve was in the ice before the Nuremberg Trials, what's your excuse? That you can't tell a good order from a bad one? The general consensus is that if that's the case most people would like you to try following the goddamn laws. Steve, for all that he let himself get caught up in protecting Bucky Barnes actually did have an opinion about the Accords. As far as I can see, you, Lang and Wilson picked your side based on who you liked better.

"The general public has been willing to accept the Wanda Maximoff's powers are to blame for the Avengers' decision to cover up her involvement with HYRDA, her working for Ultron and siccing the Hulk on Johannesburg. People are willing to believe it was her powers that made you think having her as active member of the team was a good idea. Frankly, people are willing to believe mind control was involved because otherwise the Avengers', all the Avengers' decision to trust a marginally reformed terrorist is just too disturbing. But they aren't going to swallow that you know better than the leaders of one hundred and seventeen countries when apparently all you knew about the Sokovia Accords before smashing an airport was that you liked Steve Rogers more than Tony Stark."

 **Notes:** IMO AoU is one of Marvel's weaker efforts. Going back and watching it more closely I end up feeling like there are massive disconnects: What was Ultron intended to do? What did Tony and Bruce actually do vs what do Steve and the other Avengers THINK Tony (since they apparently forget Bruce was involved) was trying to do and actually did?

The nature of Tony's vision and the line about armor around the world makes Ultron seem like a defense against external attack. The stuff about 'Peace in our time.' and obsoleting the Avengers possibly adds an internal policing aspect which could be considered worryingly close to Project Insight. Steve, Nat and Clint might actually have something useful to say about whether or not that sort of policing was a good idea. I'm left not feeling entirely sure what Tony's intentions for Ultron were vs what Ultron distorted as he scanned the internet looking for more data establish a purpose for himself. To me uncertainty about what Ultron was intended to be is just sloppy writing.

I'm also left unsure if Steve objected to Ultron because it went horribly wrong or if he objected to what Tony was trying to do. "Sometimes my teammates don't tell me things" feels like projection now that we know Steve was keeping secrets from Tony at that point. "Trying to win a war before it starts," is delivered with such conviction it seems like it was meant to go unquestioned but it's ridiculous on examination. I also think it's highly likely that none of the other Avengers really heard or comprehended the part where Bruce and Tony weren't ready to activate Ultron and don't know how it just came on line. They were too busy blaming Tony to listen to any inconvenient details about factors that were beyond his ability to control.


	3. Small Reparations, Alternate Scenarios

**Note:** According Wiki's MCU timeline Bucharest happens on June 9th and Siberia on June 10th. Pretty tight timeline given all the travel that needs to be accounted for but I'll go with it (Bucharest to Berlin, Berlin to NY to Leipzig, Leipzig to the Raft to Siberia). Also the bombing of Vienna happened on the 8th and Sharon gave Steve the information that Bucky was in Bucharest the same day, which makes it seem like the only reason Bucky was able to stay at liberty for the two years prior was because the governments of the world were letting Steve handle it himself (just like he wanted).

Over in AoS, Donnie Gill was captured and brainwashed by HYDRA, he broke free after doing some harm at their bidding. When pursued he couldn't tell who was HYDRA and who wasn't so he killed more people to protect himself from recapture. Eventually HYDRA got someone close enough to use his trigger phrase then he was use he is used to cover their escape. But because he wasn't Captain America's bestie when he threatened the lives of law enforcement agents (well S.H.I.E.L.D. agents currently operating outside of the law) he was summarily shot and killed. As far as we know Skye's decision to kill him was never questioned or reviewed, there wasn't even much angsting done over this kid's death. The main difference I can see between Bucky in Bucharest and Berlin verse Donny is Bucky was endangering nameless extras and he's an A-Lister's most important person, Donny was endangering the show's main characters and he was irregular support cast.

Still it's not really Bucky's fault he gets special treatment. Of all the members of Team!Cap he annoys me least. His decision to go back into cryo is stands out as a rare example in CACW where a Team!Cap member put the general good over their in-group's interests.

 **Small Reparations and Alternate Scenarios**

King T'Challa stood stiffly on the edge of his private runway as a private jet touched down. Several moments later Pepper Potts stepped out on the tarmac wearing a pencil skirt and severe heels.

"Just don't ask her if she's sure about this," Shuri murmured to her brother.

"I am not a fool," T'Challa replied quietly as they watched Pepper's approach. "The CEO of one of the largest companies in the world does not fly half-way around the globe to waffle. Especially not when it's the first time she's traveled since the birth of her daughter eight months ago."

"I'm simply aware of how uncomfortable you must be with her presence," Shuri replied.

"Yes," T'Challa said regretfully. "I could have saved her lover's life and I failed to act."

"Given the circumstances and your past decisions, I think I'm justified in worrying about how your impulses might impact our country," Shuri said.

"Thank you for your concern," T'Challa murmured sarcastically a few moments before Pepper joined them.

"Your Majesty, Princess Shuri," Pepper greeted them with a small incline of her head. "Have there been any complications?"

"Ms. Potts," T'Challa replied. "I have a room prepared for you, the test will proceed as planned first thing in the morning."

"Thank you," Pepper said. She didn't say anything else and T'Challa gestured for one of his bodyguards to escort her to her room.

"What are the odds that she is aware Wakanda offered the renegades refuge until they chose to turn themselves in?" T'Challa wondered as he watched Pepper walk away.

"I'd be a fool to wager that she doesn't," Shuri said.

Early the next morning, T'Challa personally escorted Pepper to an observation booth. On the other side of a heavy, bullet proof window Sgt. James Barnes paced nervously across the length of a barren room. Three of the Dora Milaje let themselves into the room and the door was locked behind them. While two of the women took up guard positions near the door the third took out a battered notebook and stepped closer to Barnes. "Are you prepared?" she asked.

He gave a sharp jerk of his head as assent.

"страстное желание," the tall woman stated. Barnes' fists clenched. "ржавые, Семнадцать." He backed away from her pressing himself against the far wall of the containment cell. "рассвет, Плита, девять." Barnes' head came up, he looked at the woman squarely. "добрый, возвращение домой, один." His shoulders relaxed. "грузовой автомобиль," she finished firmly.

Barnes sagged with relief. "Nothing, I'm still me."

"Sit," the woman ordered flatly.

A crooked smile lit up Bucky's face, "Ya' know what doll? I think I'm gonna pass on that."

"Are you satisfied?" T'Challa asked Pepper on the other side of the glass.

Pepper gave him a cool look. "I gave your psychiatrists access to the Binarily Augmented Retro Framing technology on the understanding that you would allow me to confirm the destruction of the weapon that killed Howard and Maria Stark. On that matter I'm satisfied that you've upheld your agreement," she said. "I trust that your people have prepared a thorough report on the techniques they used in combination with Tony's tech for the the Accords committee? After all there are a half-dozen other living victims of HYDRA's brainwashing who didn't happen to be Captain America's best friend and who don't have a guilty king to plead their case."

"May I ask how their situations are being handled?" T'Challa sighed.

"With the exception of Sgt. Barnes every known victim of HYDRA's brainwashing, from Howard Stark in 1946 to the six S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who have been recovered from HYDRA in the last three years, was apprehended as soon as possible after being identified. They were all subjected to treatment followed by evaluation to determine that they had been freed of HYDRA's influence before being released to resume to their lives," Pepper relaid. "After the debacle in Berlin were Sgt. Barnes' conditioning was reactivated the other known, surviving victims were placed under- Well, officially it's being called protective custody but I'd say involuntary commitment is the more accurate term, - and have remained there. Since we have no information on the precise phrases HYDRA used to activate them, ATCU hasn't been able to confirm, to their satisfaction, that the earlier treatments were successful. This is in spite of the fact that Sgt. Barnes was never required to accept the initial deprogramming and evaluation that was mandatory for every other known HYDRA victim."

"But they will accept that this treatment, as it's effectiveness has been tested with Sgt. Barnes?" T'Challa checked.

"That's right. The identified agents will be released once they've undergone treatment," Pepper said. "Beyond the six agents currently in custody there were four additional individuals who were identified as victims of HYDRA's brainwashing but due to their skills and abilities neither ACTU, nor any of the SHIELD fragments that illegally remained active after HYRDA's infiltration of the organization was exposed, were able to capture them. They were killed rather than allowed to remain at large and a danger to the public. While these people were HYDRA's victims and not to blame for what was done to them they were highly trained, very dangerous S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel who had been stripped of their moral beliefs. Sgt. Barnes was the only one who's well-being was placed above the well-being of the civilians that he moved among."

"You are fully aware that once Sgt. Barnes was in my custody he not only willingly submitted to measures to protect the people around him, he suggested them," T'Challa pointed out.

"I'm also aware that his friendship with _Captain America_ ," Pepper said distastefully, "is the reason he was allowed to remain at liberty for two years, and the only reason the conditions that allowed Bucharest to happen existed. He received special treatment because of who he knew and it blew up in face of the world. Also, it's likely that there were other, unidentified, S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who did not willingly join HYDRA but were picked up in the sweeps following S.H.I.E.L.D.'s fall. Those people are probably still imprisoned, still being held responsible for the actions they took on HYDRA's behalf, because they didn't have anyone with sufficient clout to speak up for them."

"Is there something you are asking me to do?" T'Challa demanded.

Pepper's mouth quirked slightly, "If you have some time left over after championing Sgt. Barnes' cause, you might want to see if you could use your influence to reopen the files from all former S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who have been incarcerated for ties with HYDRA and make sure that we didn't miss anyone who didn't turn willingly."

"Of course," T'Challa said.

"One last thing before I leave your lovely country," Pepper concluded. "Now that Sgt. Barnes is demonstrably not at risk of falling back under HYDRA's control there is no reason for you to continue to block the Accords Committee's efforts to see him in court for his role in Bucharest, at Leipzig and in Tony Stark's murder. From all reports he was acting of his own accord during those incidents."

"Perhaps, once the Committee agrees with Wakanda's requirement that Sgt. Barnes be allowed to serve any sentence in our country," T'Challa replied. "My people have become extremely sympathetic to his story and what we've learned of US prison system does not impress."

* * *

" _The purpose of my mission was to make a statement. Kill an Orgburo member who failed to follow the party line closely enough and his family. The boy, his son, was three, maybe. I broke the conditioning they put me through for Steve, 'cause I love him, but why the hell couldn't I break it for that kid? He was hardly more than a baby, a complete innocent. What kind of person am I that I could let myself kill a kid?"_

* * *

"Did the treatment work?" Steve asked as soon as Bucky's bi-weekly call connected.

"Yeah Steve, my mind's my own," Bucky sighed. "They even managed to unlock a bunch of memories from back before the war."

"That- That's great!" Steve exclaimed. "Better than we ever hoped… So why do you sound like you just came from a funeral?"

"Stark's dame came, wanted to see for herself that the Soldier was gone," Bucky said. "That Howard and his missus got what little justice they could."

Steve was silent for a moment. "I'm glad Pepper could recognize the difference between you and what HYDRA made you do," he said awkwardly.

"They weren't her parents Stevie!" Bucky huffed. "Did you know Howard's death was blamed on reckless driving? They told Howard's kid that Howard killed his ma!"

"I- I should have told Tony what I found out from Zola, I know that," Steve's voice sounded exhausted, beaten, "I could have kept Siberia from happening if I'd just thought things through. It still didn't give Tony the right to go after you."

"Stevie, he'd just watched me murder his parents. Not even twenty-four hours before that I killed two guys and shot him at point blank range on Zemo's say-so. If not for that fancy glove of his I'd have put a bullet in his head. And right before that was the Bucharest clusterfuck. Why wouldn't he think I was some sort of rabid dog that needed putting down?" Bucky asked flatly.

"It wasn't your fault!" Steve protested.

"I shouldn't have escalated it," Bucky said.

"You had to protect yourself," Steve argued desperately. "It was me that screwed up. You shouldn't suffer for my fuck-ups."

"If Stark had 've stood down would you have stopped?" Bucky asked. "At any time in that fight?"

"Of course," Steve replied instantly.

"You think it's possible he might stopped if we'd surrendered? Offered to let him take us in? I never properly met him, so you gotta tell me: Do you think he would have kept after me if I hadn't been putting up a fuss?" Bucky asked.

"They were going to lock you away and you hadn't done anything wrong," Steve's voice broke.

"My lawyer and the the shrinks are conspiring to argue that even after I broke free of HYDRA I was still, um, sufferin' diminished capacity. That with all of my memories suppressed I was basically running on fight or flight." Bucky sighed heavily, "I don't want to be that anymore. I don't wanna be someone who watches a person get their heart flayed open and only thinks about how it might affect me- Or you 'cause sometimes I think protectin' you is all I really got left of me, of the guy who fell off that train."

"Bucky," Steve whispered.

"I killed his parents, you hid that from him. Shouldn't it have been on us to be the ones that kept our head instead of putting it on him? We weren't the ones that just got ripped open back there."

"What are you going to do?" Steve asked.

"They're asking me to give 'em whatever I can remember about my Winter Soldier missions: Names, places, whatever details I can pull up. It don't feel good digging that stuff up but if it can give someone that was left behind a little peace to know the truth then I owe it to them. It ain't much but if that's what I can do for now..."

* * *

After the call with Bucky, Steve found himself brooding on Bucky's insistence that things could have turned out differently if the two of them had backed down when Tony lost his head. If they'd been willing to lose that fight.

"Tony attacked me," he told Samson. "What was Bucky supposed to do? Just stand there and let it happen? What kind of friend does that?"

"Well, from what you've told me about the events leading up to that moment," Samson sounded a bit too frustrated for professional detachment and Steve took some perverse satisfaction from it, pussyfooting irritated him. "Tony Stark watched his parents be murdered while in the presence of their killer. When he asked you, his friend, if you knew your first response was to prevaricate. Mind you, this is after you'd harshly criticized his lack of openness and this wasn't about half completed research that you only wanted to have known about in retrospect because something went wrong. This was about you withholding information that was deeply personal to him. What does it look like when one superhero decks another? Because if I take away the powers from both of you and he takes a swing… Frankly he was provoked."

 _As the video played the blood drained from Tony's face, leaving the bruise around his eye startlingly vivid against his pallid complexion. Every now and then he glanced at Bucky, only for his gaze to be drawn back to the screen, to the images of Bucky murdering his parents. For a moment he tried to close his eyes against what he was seeing and if it weren't for the lie hanging over their heads like the blade of a guillotine Steve would have reached out and turned him away._

 _When it was over Tony took a step toward Bucky. Steve grabbed him and felt a momentary flash of relief when Tony let himself be pulled back._

 _Then Tony asked, "Did you know?" And the guillotine fell._

 _"I didn't know it was him," Steve said knowing it was the wrong thing to say._

 _Tony's voice hardened. "Don't you bullshit me! Did. You. Know?" he demanded._

 _Steve paused staring into Tony's eyes, trying to find the right answer. "Yes." he finally admitted and Tony jerked away from him as if burned. Emotions flickered over Tony's face too quickly to be read. He turned away then viciously backhanded Steve, knocking him head over heels._

 _Bucky brought up his gun as Steve went flying and Tony blasted it out of his hands. The air was filled with the sound of metal on metal as Bucky's metal arm and Tony's armor clashed and from there it escalated and escalated._

"Can't you think of any other way the two of you might have responded?" Samson asked.

* * *

"What do you think?" Steve asked Sam later, after explaining Samson's question.

Sam chewed his lower lip, "I hate to say it Steve, but it sounds like you were trying to weasel out of admitting to hiding their murders. I don't know that there's any right thing to say in a situation like that, but um, 'I'm sorry' might have done less harm. It sounds like he might have still been rational, still willing to listen to you then. I don't know- Any truth you told him wasn't going to help and lying's worse. You didn't have a good explanation. Still you might have recognize that he was in pain. I honestly don't know if it would have changed anything but…"

"I shouldn't have lied, I shouldn't have held back the information about their murders," Steve said. "But what about Bucky? He wasn't wrong to step in and defend me when Tony lost it ?"

"Of course not," Clint interjected, his voice dripping with sarcasm, Steve hasn't heard anything else from him since their fight, "as long as Tony's not your priority. As long as the only thing that matters to Barnes is making sure you're okay and the only thing that matters to you is making sure he's okay then the two of you did absolutely everything just right. If you give a damn about keeping Tony in one piece, take the fucking hit."

"That's not Steve's choice," Sam protested. "He was on the ground. Steve's pretty much the only thing familiar in the world to Barnes-"

"And Tony's out of his head from watching his folks being murdered by Barnes. I'd say the guy owed it to Tony to cut him a little slack after that," Clint said. He turned on Steve, "And don't tell me you don't have any ideas on how to act differently when one of your teammates attacks another: The debrief after Ultron's first attack ring any bells?"

 _After Ultron's first body was destroyed they'd gathered in Tony's lab to try to sort out what had happened._

 _"All our work is gone," Bruce said. "Ultron is gone, used the internet as an escape hatch."_

 _"Ultron," Steve felt his temper building at the name, Tony's rogue creation._

 _Natasha looked up, "He's been in everything. Files, surveillance he probably knows more about us than we know about each other," she declared crossing her arms defensively. Clint shifted worriedly, at the time Steve had just thought it was that both spies feared being known by their enemies._

 _"He's in your files, in the internet?" Rhodes interjected, one arm crossed over his body to clasp an injury from the fight. "What if he decides to access something a little more exciting?"_

 _"Nuclear codes," Hill replied, realizing along with Rhodes that this could be a whole lot bigger than some crazy robot going after the Avengers._

 _"Nuclear codes," Rhodes confirmed. "Look we need to make some calls, assuming we still can." Long before the Accords, Rhodes' first thought was to collaborate with the government._

 _The whole time they were talking Tony just stood over the broken shell that had housed Ultron, staring grimly down at it._

 _"Nukes?" Natasha said dubiously. "He said he wanted us dead."_

 _"He didn't say 'dead'," Steve corrected. "He said 'extinct'."_

 _"He also said he killed somebody," Clint reminded them._

 _Hill looked glanced up with a frown, "There wasn't anybody else in the building." And Tony finally spoke, "Yes, there was." He used a remote to display a hologram of J.A.R.V.I.S.'s brutally torn apart code._

 _Bruce and Steve joined Tony staring down at what was essentially a virtual corpse. "This is insane," Bruce breathed._

 _"J.A.R.V.I.S. was our first line of defense," Steve bowed his head. Maybe JARVIS was only a code but he'd felt real, like a member of the team and he was gone. "He would have shut Ultron down. It makes sense."_

 _"No," Bruce shook his head disagreeing with Steve's tactical analysis of Ultron's attack. "Ultron could have assimilated J.A.R.V.I.S. This isn't strategy… This, is rage."_

 _Thor stalked across the room and grabbed Tony by the throat, lifting the unarmored human off the floor easily. "It's going around," Clint observed as Thor lifted Tony higher._

 _Tony wrapped both hands around Thor's wrist, giving himself enough of an airway to speak. "Come on, use your words buddy."_

 _"I have more than enough words to describe you Stark," Thor growled and Steve realized he was going to have to intervene. "Thor, the legionnaire," he demanded, distracting the Norse god from his target._

 _Thor dropped Tony and gave his report, the critical moment passed._

"Thor attacked Tony and somehow we all walked away alive," Clint sneered before storming away. "You could figure it out then, when no one you actually gave a damn about was on the line," he called over his shoulder.

"He's just-" Sam shook his head.

"Angry that I don't live up to my billing?" Steve ventured but as bitter as Clint had been he couldn't quite dismiss his point. Laying on his cot he mentally reviewed the two fights, blended them in his mind.

 _"No," Bruce disagrees with Steve's tactical analysis of Ultron's attack. "Ultron could have assimilated J.A.R.V.I.S." He shakes his head, "This isn't strategy… This, is rage."_

 _Thor stalks across the room and grabs Tony by the throat, lifting the unarmored human off the floor easily. Instead of Hawkeye's bland observation, the Hulk remembers the video feeds they'd all reviewed after their first battle as a team. Loki had done exactly the same thing to Tony before throwing him through the shatterproof window of his penthouse apartment and the Hulk had protective streak when it came to his 'tinman'._

 _The force of the Hulk's roar as he explodes from Bruce's body is enough to make Thor drop Tony. He raises his hand and the hammer flies to it's master just as the Hulk backhands Thor across the room. The green behemoth's next blow doesn't go unchallenged._

 _As they continue to fight Thor begins to gain the upper hand, he shoves the Hulk to the ground and raises his hammer. But by then Tony has summoned his armor and blasts Mjolnir out of Thor's hand. The Hulk turns the tables on Thor again…_

'Of course that wouldn't have happened,' Steve realized. 'Bruce and Tony felt too guilty over Ultron. Besides the rest of us wouldn't have just stood there and watched.' Somehow that thought made Steve cringe. It took him a moment to pin down why.

 _The rest of the team, Steve, Clint and Natasha, dog-pile on the Hulk, trying to get the irrational monster off of Thor. Rhodes didn't have implants like Tony did, he couldn't summon his armor, so like the eminently sensible person he is he herds Hill and Cho out of the room before any of them could end up collateral damage then sprints for his suit._

 _Only the Hulk isn't the only one protective of his friends, Tony uses the suit's repulsors and blasts them away from Hulk…_

Steve shook his head somehow it still didn't ring true.

 _...Then Tony grabs the Hulk, hustles him to the 'playroom' he'd built to contain the behemoth and seals it up behind them because Tony knew how much Bruce hated to lose control, how he feared what he could do in that state. Any and all attempts to breach the room are met with vicious, cutting sarcasm. Rhodes stations himself at the door providing a lock infinitely more effective than Tony's best tech: He reminds them all that there is a bigger picture and this isn't the time to be caught up in assigning blame._

Steve winced, thinking about how even if he'd been attacked Tony wouldn't have been so caught up in anger that he'd forget to think of Bruce's feelings in the aftermath only underlined how badly hurt Tony must have been in Siberia.

Tony's anger normally ran cold, shown in increased ruthlessness rather than a loss of control. Even if Steve dismissed Pepper's insistence that Tony's failure to gain distance and use his ranged weaponry to it's best effect because Tony wasn't trying to kill them… Well what did that leave? A Tony so hurt and betrayed that he'd wanted their flesh under his fists even if that sort of fight only played to the super soldiers' strengths.

Almost hesitantly Steve reviewed Siberia keeping the Ultron debrief in mind.

 _Steve paused staring into Tony's eyes, trying to find the right answer. "Yes." he finally admitted and Tony jerked away from him as if burned. Emotions flickered over Tony's face too quickly to be read. He turned away then viciously backhanded Steve, knocking him head over heels._

 _Bucky is slower to react, held back by memories of Howard pleading for help, not for himself but for his wife. This is Howard's son. Steve takes advantage of the momentary respite and gestures for Bucky to stand down. He stays on the floor, not offering a threat. Instead he raises a hand to rub his aching jaw. "Feeling better?" he asks Tony._

 _Tony's helmet had unfolded around his head but he stops, leaving the faceplate open. "No." It's not said with regret for his earlier outburst, just an acknowledgement that hurting Steve hadn't eased the hurt Steve had dealt him._

 _'Where do we go from here?' Steve wonders but it was Bucky who makes the next move. He puts his gun on the ground and steps away from it, raising his hands. "I surrender."_

 _"Now you decide to surrender?" it's an honest question if you ignore the tone and somehow without ever having really met Tony before Bucky knows that. But then sarcasm is Bucky's native tongue as much as it's Tony's._

 _"What else can I do? Hang around out here waiting for the next bastard to find my override codes?" It's always jarring to Steve when Bucky uses terms that remind him that Bucky hadn't simply been out all those years, that he picked things up even as the Winter Soldier. It has a similar effect on Tony._

 _"You can stop that right?" Steve asks. "You'll figure out a way to keep Berlin from happening again?"_

 _He watches as the technical challenge pulls another layer of Tony from behind the hurt. "Yeah… Yeah, I got some ideas." He turns and glares at Bucky, "I'm not doing it for you, it's for your victims."_

Steve sighed, things might have worked out better if Bucky hadn't gone on the offensive but it wasn't fair to expect that of him. The Bucky in his scenario wasn't the Bucky from Siberia, on edge from days of being relentlessly hunted and hounded. It was Bucky from Wakanda after spending a couple days barricaded in the room T'Challa offered. But then hadn't been fair for Tony to learned about his parents Zemo rather than hearing it from Steve years earlier.

 _Bucky brought up his gun as Steve went flying and Tony blasted it out of his hands. The air was filled with the sound of metal on metal as Bucky's metal arm and Tony's armor clashed. Tony used the repulsors in his boots to drive Bucky across the room then pinned him under his boot. He pointed the repulsor at Bucky's head but Steve deflected it with his shield._

 _Tony retaliated, taking Steve down with restraints before going after Bucky again. While Steve struggled with the restraints Bucky twisted Tony's arm and his missile went astray. The whole world turned to flames and falling debris. For a moment the three of them were separated. Steve and Bucky make it to their feet before Tony, but Steve doesn't tell Bucky to run. "Stand down," he orders._

 _When Tony goes for Bucky again, still lost in rage, Steve grabs him. In the armor Tony's strength is comparable to his own but he locks his hand around his wrist and holds on, keeping Tony's hands pinned to his sides. Tony uses the boot repulsors to slam them both into a wall. Steve holds tight but eventually he's going to lose control of Tony._

 _"I'll sign the Accords." Not because Steve agrees with them, not because they're right but simply because signing is a better option than fighting with Tony. The non sequitur shocks Tony into stillness. After a moment Steve lets go and raises his hands. "We surrender."_

 _He'll sign and if the Accords are as bad as he knows they're going to be he'll trust Tony to break them when the time comes. Tony came to Siberia to help, in spite of the Accords, Tony will come the next time as well. They'll face the threat together and then they'll go back to General Ross and the UN and tell them where to shove their damned Accords together. Winning right now doesn't matter, all that matters is stopping the fight before anyone's seriously hurt._

Or even simpler:

 _"Stay down. Final warning," Tony ordered._

 _And Steve does because he doesn't have the moral high ground. Tony and Bucky are both hurting, tearing each other apart for his mistakes and maybe that's a sign that this isn't his fight to win. "Okay Tony, enough. We surrender."_

 _As always Bucky backs his play. He doesn't exactly fake unconsciousness but he stays on the ground. For a moment Tony looks lost at the sudden lack of resistance. T'Challa arrives and takes charge a short while later._

 _At first Steve lets himself think that the only thing they've lost was Bucky's metal arm and that could be rebuilt but during the long silent flight to the UN office in Tokyo he realizes that his friendship with Tony was another casualty, it had silently bled out somewhere in the years he hadn't told Tony about his parents._

 _With T'Challa's involvement Bucky gets his trial and eventually Tony's tech is used to end the Winter Soldier. Pepper and Rhodey come with Tony to support him when he witnesses the proof that the Soldier, the weapon that killed his parents, is gone forever. Afterwards, Bucky remains in Wakanda. T'Challa's efforts on Bucky's behalf have won the country over but the rest of the world remains wary. Tony's influence and media savvy might have been enough to turn the tide of public opinion but he left it to T'Challa and the young king's influence didn't extend so far._

 _Still, Tony believes in the Avengers, believes they are needed. They still have to sign the Accords or retire but Tony eventually gets them all pardoned. He and Steve will never be part of the same team again. During the war against Thanos they occasionally share a battlefield but Tony never speaks to him again after Siberia. Still Tony's alive and once and awhile Steve sees him on TV with his wife and daughter. Their friendship doesn't survived but Tony does._

"You were always better at winning battles than wars." the voice in Steve's head sounds like Ultron laughing at them from beyond the grave.


	4. Future of the World

**Notes:** I never really followed Dr. Strange in the comics and I love "Sherlock" so there might be some carry over in how I write Strange. On the other side of the spectrum, I didn't watch the last F4 movie and the previous series left no particular impression about Doom or anyone else so the comics are my primary source for Doom's personality. I also decided to move Latveria from Eastern Europe to the steppes east of the Caspian Sea (both to get it closer to Strange's area of the globe and further from Wanda's).

 **The Future of the World**

 **(and a Little Girl)**

Bundled up in a heavy parka, Pepper watched from several blocks away as the first full scale test of Arc Shield technology was conducted in Fairbanks, Alaska. The isolated city was one of the few US cities to adopt SI's arc reactor as an alternative to the coal and oil fueled generators that had powered the city for generations and they agreed to test the Arc Shield on the suspicion that while their location wouldn't deter space-born invaders it would leave them low ranked in terms of the military's defensive priorities.

Pepper watched as a beam of bright blue light shot up from the Reactor and bloomed. The shield spread until the entire city, forty square miles was inside the glowing blue dome. Overhead several helicopters opened fire, aiming to hit the shield but have the bullers pass over the city if the shield failed. For twenty minutes the bombardment continued while people stood in the streets, heads craned back to watch the flashes as the Arc Shield repelled first bullets and then missiles. Dozens of SI scientists poured over their equipment gathering data on the shield's effectiveness.

"Energy consumption is higher than projected but I think we can call this a success," the project leader reported as explosions lit the sky like fireworks.

* * *

"How do you feel about travel?" Pepper asked May Parker. "I could really use a PA I trust to double as a babysitter while I'm selling the world on Arc Shield technology and I don't want to leave Nettie behind for a month roughly?" Pepper's voice rose turning the statement into a question.

May glanced over at Peter. "Go," he said. "I'm Spider-Man, I can handle taking care of myself for a month."

"I'm feeling less than reassured," May replied.

Vision put a hand on Peter's shoulder. "I will see that he maintains a healthy diet," the synthoid offered.

"I won't do his laundry but I'll make sure it gets done, same goes for homework." Rhodey grinned, "You can call my mom if you need babysitting credentials."

"I don't need babysitting," Peter protested. "I'm seventeen! I got early admission into college and I'd be considering moving into the dorms if not for the Spidey-stuff and my internship."

"I will keep you informed of any Spider-Man related incidents," FRIDAY chimed in. "I can also promise to notify you of curfew violations and wake him up in a timely manner."

"Traitor," Peter huffed. "Should I tell Ms. Potts about-"

A loud burst of static from FRIDAY's speaker cut him off. "I rescind the offer to monitor Peter's bedtimes," she said.

May laughed, "It's good to have neighbors. James, Peter doesn't actually have a curfew but I do expect him to let me know when he's out with friends as opposed to out as Spider-Man."

Rhodey nodded. "One of the Avengers always keep an ear out when Spider-Man is patrolling," he assured her. "We'll know if he's overdue and both the Avengers and Defenders are ready with back-up if he needs it."

"Thank you," May replied. "I know it but it's still good to hear that he isn't on his own." Peter grumbled to himself and May ruffled his hair, adding, "Even if he rarely needs the help."

* * *

Pepper stood in front of the subset of the Sokovia Accords committee specifically tasked with preparing the Earth for Thanos' to invasion. "Powered by one of Stark Industries' full scale Arc Reactors, the Arc Shield can protect an area of forty square miles. The Arc Shield technology can successfully repel up to six forty-two petajoules blasts an hour, that is the equivalent of six hydrogen bombs. Because the Arc Shield is an energy shield it restores itself over time, damage will be in the nature of overloads and blown circuitry rather than weakened walls; repair teams will be small and they won't need to be exposed while they're working."

May played with Nettie in the conference room down the hall while checking with the airports to make sure their itinerary was on track.

"Ms. Potts would you have time to schedule a stop in Wakanda?" T'Challa asked, catching Pepper as she left the meeting. "I hope you would be open to speaking with our engineers about integrating the Arc Shield technology with Wakanda's existing geothermal power supply?"

"I'd be happy to," Pepper agreed. "Given Wakanda reputation for technological advancement, your willingness to adopt SI tech is excellent advertising. But you have to realize that one of the Arc Shield's limitations is that it needs to draw a lot of energy quickly to repel larger explosions, the Arc Reactor is one of the few options for power generation that can respond to the sort of instantaneous demand the Arc Shield creates. Even so the Shield's greatest limitation is too great a demand, an extended bombardment for example."

"You mean more than six hydrogen bombs in an hour?" T'Challa asked dryly.

"Precisely," Pepper replied. "Incorporating the Arc Reactor into an existing power grid might allow us to boost the base power level consumed by the shield."

"My engineers would be happy to attempt to improve on what you've developed," T'Challa said.

"They wouldn't be engineers if they weren't," Pepper agreed.

May joined them, Nettie balanced on her hip.

The little girl immediately held out her hands to her mother, "Were you a good girl?" Pepper asked and Nettie nodded enthusiastically, the pendant on her choker bobbing with her head.

"There was a projector in the room," May said with a droll smile.

"Was?" Pepper sighed. "I'm surprised such old tech capture her attention."

"Well, most two years aren't brand conscious," May replied. "It had a power cord thus it was worthy of disassembly."

"She is very like her father?" T'Challa asked, his voice catching in his throat.

"Oh, May, could you have legal draw up some non-disclosure Forms and have them sent to Wakanda?" Pepper asked. "Standard collaboration clauses. Your Majesty, you'll explain that the Arc Reactor is completely off limits but if they can improve on the Shield technology… forty square mile patches aren't good enough for what's coming."

"I will make it clear," T'Challa said.

"Also Wakanda, naturally, will be expected to pay the full price for the Arc Shield technology," Pepper continued. "Your country has been notorious refusing to take in refugees since the 1940's when it was finally confirmed that Wakanda was not actually a myth."

'No little thanks to Howard Stark's thieving habits.' T'Challa thought to himself. Before Howard Stark had taken the myths of Wakanda and their miraculous metal seriously, people who went looking for Wakanda were seen as on par with those who sought El Dorado or Shangri-La. After Howard took the vibranium he stole and made it into a shield for a national icon people took the old myths much more seriously. By the 70's Wakanda's location was common on world maps. But by then Wakanda technology had developed a field the generated a deep, almost instinctual feeling of dread and revulsion in those exposed to drive would-be visitors away. Developing and Installing the field generators on Wakanda's borders had been the last great accomplishment of T'Challa's grandfather's reign.

* * *

Pepper dropped her personal shield then turned to smile at the interviewer cowering behind her. Across the room one of Pepper's assistants set down the bazooka he'd just fired at them. Backstage, Nettie laughed and squirmed in May's arms, trying to crawl on her shoulders for a better view. "Again Mommy! Again!" the toddler shrieked happily. Pepper smiled at her daughter.

"I wasn't expecting a live demo from you," the interviewer admitted. "Tony, sure but…"

Pepper's expression turned sphinx-like, "The personal Arc Shield was one of Tony's last gifts to me. I thought it appropriate to borrow a little of his style to present it."

She turned her attention to the cameras, "One of the hardest thing about being involved with one of the Avengers was the frequency with which I found myself in situations where I was helpless. Watching while Tony flew a nuke through that portal, knowing that nothing I could do would improve his chances of coming back. The all too many times when I was taken hostage by Tony's enemies. It wasn't until after Tony was killed that I figured out that it wasn't on him to find a way to make me feel less helpless, but that didn't stop Tony from trying. The personal Arc Shield was Tony's way of giving me the means to protect myself.

"In light of what's coming, I wanted to shared that with the rest of you. Stark Industries has been working for the last few months on a way to scale up the Arc Shield to make it into a defense for our cities. Two months ago we performed a successful test of a forty square mile shield."

"But SI isn't offering to just give away the Arc Shield technology is it?" the interviewer asked.

"Of course not," Pepper replied coolly. "Stark Industries has employees to support. What we are doing is putting the money from each Arc Shield sold, less time and materials, into a fund to pay for the materials needed to set up additional shields in populations centers where they can't be afforded. SI will donate the time needed to install those reactors."

"What about the Arc Reactors already in service, will that be a factor in deciding where the Arc Shield technology is installed first?"

"It's a factor," Pepper said. "Half the work and three quarters of the cost are already done when the Arc Reactor is in place. Unfortunately the Arc Reactor technology has been most widely adopted in remote communities or where there was was limited existing infrastructure. The arc reactor is the size of a walk in closet and it provides power comparable to the Hoover Dam. It's become the preferred energy source on many islands communities, as well as in the Canadian Territories and Australia replacing coal and other fossil fuel burning generators. We've donated a number reactors to communities in Sub-Saharan Africa to help combat their energy crisis.

"However while the Arc Reactor is most useful in remote and developing regions of the globe, the Arc Shield will do the most good in regions of high population density. We don't have the time or the resources to cover the entire globe in Arc Shields, thus our priority has to be on making them available to as many people as possible."

* * *

Nettie scowled fiercely at the child gate keeping her out of the cockpit of the SI jet then reached for the latch on the back of her choker.

"No," Pepper said firmly. Nettie pouted but when Pepper didn't relent she sighed and toddled off to search through her toys.

Pepper went back to studying the world population density and proposed Acr Shield sites, trying different scenarios to balance the cost of the ones she was sure they'd have to donate against the profit from the ones they could sell. "Send SI sales reps to LA, Dallas, Fort Lauderdale and Chicago to start with. Dr. Pym has all but finalized plans to use San Francisco as the test case for minimizing cities, I'll have to talk with him about how much of the bay area will go with it to determine if and where we should consider the South Bay for an Arc Shield site. Start quietly reminding people that New York might have the Arc Shield in Stark Towers but the city is more than four hundred square miles, not forty," she dictated. "At some point we're going to have to bring up that areas right outside of of the shield's boundaries will suffer heightened damage because the arc shield repels, it doesn't absorb damage but if we bring it up too quickly it could look like we're attempting to blackmail the rest of the city into purchasing their own reactor."

"Wait too long and they'll think you were trying to hide it," May pointed out.

Pepper rubbed her temples. "Always a balancing act."

Nettie took a board book and returned to the childproof gate. She tried to use the corner of the book as a screwdriver to remove the obstacle from her path. Pepper watched Nettie begin to make some progress with an increasingly melancholy smile.

"Where did you just go?" May asked as she shooed Nettie over to her mother and set to fixing the gate.

"The revolution in baby proofing that isn't happening," Pepper sighed. "Watching Nettie, I was just thinking how Tony would have definitely taken that as a challenge, not to mention how he'd have redesigned everything to be friendly to coffee-deprived adults stumbling into the kitchen at the ungodly hour of ten o'clock."

"Not a morning person?" May asked wryly.

Pepper shook her head, "According to Tony, four am was a fine time for heading to bed and the hours between six and noon were an obscenity that could only be faced with at least two oversized mugs of coffee. Of course Tony and I would probably be quarreling about the ethics of chipping Nettie like a pet too."

There was a small "Eep" from the speakers.

"FRIDAY?" Pepper asked.

"Oh nothing," FRIDAY said quickly. "Nothing you want to know about. Amadeus…"

"After Nettie's in bed," Pepper said sternly.

* * *

May and Nettie were watching Pepper's presentation in Amsterdam when the attack came. A wild looking man suddenly swung down from the rafters and grabbed May by the hair. May ripped herself free and shoved Nettie into her stroller.

"Iron Buggy activate," FRIDAY announced. In a flash metal shields raised, turning the stroller into a metal cocoon. Inside webbing wound itself around Nettie securing her against jostling while repulsor turrets sprouted on the outside of the buggy.

The wild man grinned and lunged for May again. He knocked her hand aside as she pulled a keyring mace out of her pocket. May scrambled backwards and the Iron Buggy opened fire on him as FRIDAY took the cocoon up and out of the man's range. "Colonel Rhodes gave me special permission to shoot anyone who attacks my little sis," FRIDAY informed him smugly.

The wild man dodged repulsor blasts and bullets with equal easy. "The child is of no interest. I seek bait for Spider-Man."

May took the chance to get out, onto the stage. The wild man sidestepped another, almost hesitant, repulsor blast and chased after her. Then Pepper was between May and the wild man, the golden glow in her eyes competing with the white-blue of charged Arc Shield. May tucked herself in close behind Pepper, making sure the other woman could shield them both without effort.

"You think a mere corporate drone could give pause to Kraven the Hunter ?" the man laughed.

Pepper's free hand started to glow. "You know, if I were trying to hide my powers I might think twice about handling you," she said. "Play helpless and hope Happy gets here with the Iron Man armor before I had to give myself away or let you hurt my friend. But I'm not hiding anything." Pepper briefly touched the podium and left a handprint scorched in the metal. "You had better run or better yet, sit quietly until security rounds you up. If you come within an arm's length of May or I… Well, I'm quite certain you'd defeat me in any sort of hand-to-hand contest but you'd have to touch me. My skin temperature is currently at a thousand degrees Kelvin and rising. Grab me and the flesh will burn off your bones in seconds."

Kraven smirked and fired a bolo at Pepper. Her shield expanded and it bounced harmlessly. "Oh, and you have to get past Tony Stark's shield technology," Pepper added. She watched as security guards and police formed a barricade at the edge of the stage while others evacuated the audience.

A moment later Happy took point in the armor, backed by several SI drones. Kraven noted the forces arrayed against him and leapt for the rafters. A repulsor blast caught him in the leg as he fled but didn't hinder him enough to prevent his escape through a skylight.

"I can't let you out of sight long enough for a bathroom break," Happy complained as he scanned the area for any signs that Kraven's retreat was just a feint. When he relaxed Pepper did too, deactivating her shield and letting her powers go dormant.

"To be fair he was one of Spider-Man's," May said as FRIDAY lowered the Iron Buggy back to the stage. "We always knew there'd be some people who would believe Norman's story."

The Iron Buggy cracked open and Nettie's giggles could be heard. Pepper, Happy and May traded a relieved glance. "She had a grand old time," FRIDAY confirmed.

"I'm glad someone did," Pepper sighed as she scooped up her daughter and gave her a quick hug.

* * *

The Japanese Minister smiled politely at Pepper, "While Kyoto is on the list of cities being considered for Dr. Pym's technology and the early polls of the population are favorable, we are very interested in your Arc Shield for Tokyo. As it is our capital, it would ill behoove us to run."

Pepper nodded, "D.C. and London said much the same."

"I understand it would take more than twenty units to shield all of Tokyo. I recognize that your company's efforts will necessarily be distributed across the globe. Therefore, we would like our first unit to shield our center of government. By the way, how much experimentation have you done with multiple reactors? Is the area shielded additive or multiplicative? Can the Arc Reactors and Shields reinforce each other?"

"I must admit we haven't had the opportunity to experiment with the effect of two Arc Reactors in close proximity," Pepper said.

"Then allow me offer Tokyo as a testing site… As soon as you can install two reactors for us."

* * *

In Bangladesh Pepper and May woke up to a garbled whining coming from their phones, computers, Nettie's stroller and in fact every device FRIDAY could access. They woke up to an empty crib. The slates were frozen half-extended into it's defensive mode, Nettie's favorite baby blanket lay on the floor where it had been dropped.

Pepper's first call was to Rhodey. He and Captain Marvel immediately flew out to start the search. "The homing beacon in Nettie's choker is deactivated," Pepper told Rhodey quietly. She was clinging to Nettie's baby blanket with a white knuckled grip and blinking constantly to keep tears at bay. "That means her power suppressor is offline as well."

Rhodes looked sick as he thought about what might have happened if the kidnappers panicked when they saw evidence of Nettie's powers or if they couldn't figure out how to control her. He didn't say it, all they could do now was focus on getting Nettie back. It wouldn't help anyone, especially not Pepper, to voice the fear that Nettie could already be dead. "We'll find her."

* * *

Vision was tasked with determining what had happened to FRIDAY and to learn what the AI had seen as they all knew that the only way Nettie could have been taken was by going through her big sis. On opposite sides of the country Amadeus, Peter and Harley joined Vision's efforts as soon they became aware of the situation.

Amadeus threw his phone across the room angrily. Peter glanced up from his work station. He knew Harley hated the other boy flirting with his 'sister', that Harley was afraid that Amadeus might look at FRIDAY as some sort of dating sim to be played with but if he really liked her...

"Let's face it, this is magic," Amadeus exclaimed. "If it made any sense FRI would have handled the attack better."

Vision considered it for a moment then nodded gravely. "I am making progress," he said. The gem on his forehead glowed.

* * *

Director Everett Ross called Pepper as soon as he heard. "I've called a special session of the Accords Committee, we've designated a sub-committee: Colonel Rhodes, Ms. Hudson from Canada and Special Commissioner Shapandar from India to be on standby so any action can quickly be approved. Of course, once a course is decided on it will need to ratification by the larger committee within forty-eight hours of implementation."

Pepper nodded and smiled weakly at his officious addendum. A forty-eight hour window made it likely that any approvals would be rubber stamps after the fact. They weren't simply throwing the rule book out for Nettie but she could see that everyone wanted to do what they could to bring her daughter home safely.

* * *

Maria Hill joined them in the early hours of the morning with a team of experts.

"No signs of tampering with the lock or the window," a female agent who had gone to an effort to make herself not look like Natasha Romanov reported. She carefully kept her head ducked around Pepper in case her disguise didn't hold up under scrutiny. "We're considering portals, either magical or technological, as an entry method. There are indicators for either possibility."

T'Challa arrived shortly after Hill and her agents. "Okoye is skilled in tracking digital traces and Aneka has some mystical sensitivity. I would like to offer their services," he said indicating two of his retinue. He sadly eyed the baby blanket Pepper still clung to like a talisman.

Pepper bit back the urge to scream at him that he could take his guilt and stuff it. That if he'd cared as much about Tony as he did Zemo and Barnes then she wouldn't need his charity, Iron Man would have been there to protect his daughter and his world. If Tony had of been alive she wouldn't have been hauling a sixteen-month-old around the world to sell people on supporting Stark Industries' efforts to prepare the world for the coming invasion. "Thank you for your help," she said stiffly.

* * *

The story led the news in the US and around the world the next day.

In one of the most secure facilities in the world, located in an isolated corner of Nevada the four renegade Avengers were immediately drawn to the TV screen when Tony's image appeared. The media had largely moved on from stories about the billionaire hero in the two years since his death. As the reporter spoke a blended collage showing Tony, Pepper and Nettie appeared in the background. Seeing their faces together it was easy to see Tony in his daughter's dark curly hair and mischievous smile and Pepper in her clear blue eyes and the shape of her nose but what Steve saw most of all was the reminder that there were no pictures of Tony with his daughter.

"Antoinette Evelyn Stark was kidnapped from her mother's hotel room in Bangladesh late last night," the reporter said. "To the best of our knowledge there has not been a ransom demand, no group has stepped forward to claim responsibility. The Avengers, currently led by Tony Stark's life-long friend, Colonel James Rhodes, were called in as soon as the kidnapping was discovered. This has led to speculation that Iron Man's enemies are the primary suspects, rather than earlier enemies from Tony Stark's Merchant of Death days."

"Shit," Clint breathed softly. "She's not even a year and a half."

The reporter continued, "Tony Stark himself was kidnapped twice as a child prior to the three months he was held hostage in Afghanistan before emerging as Iron Man."

"Tony would have built something to find her," Steve said guiltily. None of the others disagreed.

* * *

A tall man with a goatee strode through the chaos enveloping Pepper's hotel suite and somehow failed to draw any attention despite the ostentatious red cape fluttering grandly around him. He walked right up to Pepper without a single challenge. "Ms. Potts," he said.

Pepper shook her head and blinked, "Dr. Strange? Where? How?"

He blithely ignored the half-dozen weapons that were pointed at him as the room full of agents suddenly noticed his existence. "I met Dr. Stark, oh fifteen years ago at a charity dinner. I wished to offer my help."

"Tony made a _good_ impression?" Pepper asked a bit inanely as she tried to decide if the cape was moving on it's own. The cape's hem brushed against her hands, still tangled in Nettie's blanket and for a moment it felt like a comforting hand placed on top of hers.

Strange shrugged, "He insulted my intelligence, I did the same to him. It was the only conversation worth remembering from the entire, painfully boring, night."

"How did you get past the security perimeter and why am I not arresting you?" Maria Hill demanded.

"The answer is one and the same," Strange declared loftily. "Magic."

"You're an unregistered superhero," Hill replied, unimpressed.

"I am no such thing," Strange gave her an offended scowl. "I do not make a practice of confronting garden variety terrorists in crowded market places. I am entirely happy to leave such things to those authorities who have trained to deal with them. And in return I expect them to leave rogue sorcerers to me." He glanced down his nose at Hill's operation. "Although I suppose, in the interest of what you might call inter-agency cooperation, I could leave you a phone number. I'd rather not learn about incidents where magic is used to commit a serious crime from CNN a second time.

"Now this room reeks of forbidden magics. Would you kindly get out of my way while I see if there are any traces left uncorrupted for me to follow?"

* * *

Dum-E trundled up behind Harley and and nudged him with his arm. "I'm trying to get her back," Harley said batting the robot arm away. "Both of them."

Dum-E nudged him again and produced a squealing beep.

"What?!" Harley demanded. "I'm busy!"

Dum-E picked up a pen and, in a shaky hand, wrote, "GPS. 55-12-16."

"I know you want to help but we already know about Nettie's tracker and…" Harley trailed off as he blinked at the number Dum-E had written. "And that's not the tracker we know about!"

Dum-E tilted his camera to the side in a distinctly knowing way.

"Vision!" Harley exclaimed turning to the holographic interface linking the Malibu lab with the New York lab. "I think Nettie has a second GPS tracker."

* * *

"You are certain the tracking device is Miss Stark?" T'Challa asked. "I find it difficult to believe that her mother and Colonel Rhodes would be unaware of it's existence."

Okoye straightened, "The tracking device came online in the same window when the girl went missing. Aneka's investigations into the dark arts she sensed in that room also point us toward Latveria."

"Doom has stated many times that he would consider any military, intelligence or humanitarian interventions into his country to be an act of war," T'Challa reminded himself. "Even given everyone's fervent desire to see Tony Stark's daughter reunited with her mother they may draw the line at starting a war."

"If I may?" Okoye requested formally. "Victor von Doom's extremely delicate pride is a well know fact."

T'Challa's eyes widened, the two of them shared a sly smile. "If we can take the girl back without allowing it to become public knowledge that he ever had her…"

"He will chose to save face and not admit that he was incapable of foiling us," Okoye finished. Then the smile fell from her face. "Your heart demands that you save her and I know you well enough to know you will go, whatever I say. You pursued James Barnes when I recommended against it. You did not ask my opinion before offering sanctuary to him and his allies."

"I thought you had become fond of our guest?" T'Challa said.

"Now that he is free of HYDRA's conditioning and has had the breathing space to know his mind, I find him open to instruction and even with one arm he is a challenging sparring partner," Okoye replied. "I would not allow fondness for him to sway me from my duties. But at the same time I cannot countenance leaving a sixteen month old child in the hands of a man who would steal her from her loving family and you will go even if I could."

"In this case I believe my heart and head are in alignment," T'Challa said. "Antoinette Stark is not just an innocent child deserving to be saved or even the child of a man I wronged whom I would give much to make amends. She is also the CEO of Stark Industries' daughter. The Nova Empire is offering humanity a new planet, although I find myself wondering why this planet is conveniently habitable and yet uninhabited. They are capable of removing a considerable population from harm's way before Thanos' Armies arrive and with Dr. Pym's aid those who go will be able to take whole cities with them.

"Those who abandon the Earth may save our species and our history if the worse comes. But the Arc Shield is the first thing I have seen that may give those of us who stay a fighting chance, the means to protect our people, our cities and our ability to fight from bombardment by interplanetary ships. The invention is Tony Stark's but Ms. Potts is the one who directed the effort to transform it from personal defense into something much larger. She is the one who directs SI's resources to take it from proof of concept to mass production. If we lose her, we may lose the Arc Shield and any other projects of Dr. Stark's that are still in progress. If we lose her we lose yet another politically savvy and moderate voice in the Accords' legislature. After all the blows she has weathered, some at my hands, I do not know what Virginia Potts would become if her daughter is lost and I do not wish to know.

"So we will rescue Ms. Stark because it is both the right and the practical thing to do. But we be smart about it. And quick," Okoye said. "It would be best if we have her back with her mother before anyone else realizes where she is."

* * *

"Mr. Cho, I am trusting you," Vision stated giving the young man a severe look. "If I am not back in twenty-four hours you are to tell Colonel Rhodes that Nettie is in the hands of Victor von Doom. Until then say nothing."

"Huh?" Amadeus said glancing up from his work station. He smiled, "Like any good boyfriend would be, I'm totally engrossed saving my girl. Leave a message, I'll remember to look at it in a day or so."

Vision nodded. "FRIDAY will be well," he assured Amadeus. "We will not have to resort to her back-up programing. She just needs another few days to free herself from chaos caused by the attack."

* * *

T'Challa and two of his bodyguards landed powered stealth gliders within a mile of Doom's castle. Silently they broke down the gliders, reducing them to backpacks.

Under the cover of night they jogged to a river that passed under the castle. In medieval times the river, in its narrow rocky canyon, had made sitting out sieges easier. In the modern day it was a breach in the castle's defenses. The three Wakandans slipped into the river and let it carry them under the castle with the help of only minor use of jamming technology to pass them off as part of the flotsam in the rushing water.

Once they climbed out of the river they made their way through natural caves into the root cellars below the castle. Due to the river, Latveria prisoners tended to be held in towers rather than dungeons.

* * *

Vision descended, slowly inevitably through the stratosphere. He turned aside Latveria's radar scans with ease. When energies echoing those that had hurt FRIDAY so badly reached for him Vision scowled darkly. The gem on his forehead burned as he caught the probing energies and twisted them back on themselves viciously.

He sank through the roof of the castle without hesitation. It was between himself and Nettie, it was immaterial.

* * *

T'Challa paused at the foot of the servant's stairs to let several robots pass. "Is there anyone living here?" he asked Okoye.

She glanced at the scanner in her hand. "Two. Both with the signal. Upstairs."

"Above the throne room, likely royal quarters,". T'Challa determined.

They made their way through the back passages of the castle hurrying when they began to hear a child screaming in terror and outrage. "Give me back my mommy! Give me back my mommy!"

"Cease this caterwauling! Do you not recognize the honor Doom does you? I have chosen you as my heir."

"You have harmed my family." T'Challa and his bodyguards arrived in time to see Vision float through the wall to confront Doom.

Then they saw Nettie, she was suspended invisibly several feet above the floor, her skin was glowing a burnished gold and the air around her shimmered with heat mirages.

The armored dictator flicked his fingers and Nettie floated over to him. "You are in the house of Doom, take care in how you speak to me."

"You will release my cousin," Vision stated. The gem on his forehead glowed ominously. "Immediately."

The air bent and twisted to form a door in reality and a man in blue and red stepped into the room right beside Doom. "You don't want to kill him," he stated as he snatched Nettie away. "Ahhh! Hot!" he exclaimed and tossed Nettie lightly toward Vision. "Not Melodramatically-Named's magic. I neutralized that."

"Who dares!" Doom thundered.

"Oh shut up," Strange said. "I'm trying to talk the angry force of nature out of killing you. Not that I care about you particularly but you're better than the last dictator in these parts and you're better than the chaos that your country will descend into should you die without a clear successor." He turned back to Vision, "Hard as it might be to believe he is the lesser evil."

Vision cuddled Nettie to his chest, "You are safe littlest cousin. You are safe."

Doom straightened, "It is true," he said. "When I was a boy a great dragon sat on the throne of this country. The dragon demanded heavy tribute from all who lived here to increase his horde, but none suffered as my people did. They starved and fell dead even as they labored for the dragon's benefit and all the rest pointed to us and were more content with their lot in life because at least they weren't us. So I rose up and slayed the dragon. After it was dead I left content in the knowledge that my people would be free only to return years later to discover that the dragon's corpse had given birth to a cerberus.

"The monster's three head fought among themselves, each wishing to be supreme and in their battles my people and those who'd once looked down on them were trampled. So I slayed each of the cerberus' three heads. Learning from my previous mistakes I took the throne myself this time. The world complains of the lack of freedoms Doom grants his people but I have seen what they did with freedom. Under Doom's rule none grow fat… and none starve. No one kills their neighbor to get more, for Doom is there like a stern but loving parent to correct such wrong behaviors."

"Even if I take your words for unadorned proof, nothing you have said excuses taking my little cousin from her mother," Vision stated. Safe in his arms Nettie's skin cooled from white-hot to a cooler but still burning red.

"As this one says, I have no heir," Doom gestured toward Strange. "But this child was revealed to me in a vision. Without her father her intelligence will be squandered." In the shadows T'Challa looked away guiltily. "But Doom shall step in and fill the lack in her life.

"The gods of old have returned to Midgard and found Earth-born gods to challenge them. Antoinette Evelyn has been gifted with immense power, intelligence, grace and beauty. Under my tutelage she will grow into a goddess to be worshipped by the entire globe. As I have done here, she will end war and poverty. Once grown to adulthood under my guidance, she will walk into the quarreling, ineffectual United Nations and put them on their knees. As my protege she will truly unify this world."

Strange rolled his eyes, "Kidnapping is not how one gains a successor," he said as if talking to a very slow individual. "And the last thing the world needs is a megalomaniac who combines Stark's intelligence with Roger's self-righteousness."

"Remember that Doom tried to be reasonable," the armored dictator stated as he raised his hand. Strange and Vision both responded without hesitation and a moment later Doom hurled was across the room, his armor denting the wall as he hit.

"Nettie has been separated from her mother for too long," Vision stated as he began to rise toward the ceiling.

"Should I offer a lift?" Strange asked.

"I am capable of returning her," Vision replied.

T'Challa quietly slunk away, his rescue, his penance, unneeded. Bucky met the returning king and his entourage on the airstrip with a division of the Dora Milaje. "You are supposed to be in a cell," T'Challa sighed.

"I was worried," Bucky stated in a flat emotionless voice. He gestured to the Dora Milaje. "So were they. We talked and decided they could guard me here as easily as in the cell. Did you succeed? Is Stark's kid okay? Did you start a war?"

T'Challa grimaced. "I did not cause an incident and I am thrilled by your faith in me, all of you. Ms. Stark is safely returned to her family but I am reminded of what a powerful presence my father was in my life. And that she lacks such a presence."

"Because of you least of the three of us," Bucky stated. "I tried, then, to tell him that I regretted killing his parents. I don't think it came out right."

T'Challa didn't doubt it, even after a year of therapy Bucky still couldn't really express emotion. HYDRA had mind-wiped him every time they'd seen any evidence that there was still more to him than their 'Asset', it had been a survival mechanism to bury any trace of feeling that managed to creep through his conditioning rather than have them try to stamp it out.

"But she still lost her father because of me," T'Challa said. "I had the power to change the outcome and did not. I was too wrapped up in the mistakes I'd made in the name of avenging my father and her father died for that. The debt I owe her is less easily repaid than the one I owe you."

* * *

Pepper didn't break down until Vision put Nettie in her arms. But with Nettie back and safe Pepper slid to her knees hugging the little girl to herself as tight as she could and just sobbed, she cried until it frightened Nettie and Rhodes almost toppled his wheelchair trying to lean over and comfort both of them.

"Mommy?" Nettie's voice quavered.

"It's okay baby. Everything's okay," Pepper laughed burying her tear-stained face in Nettie's curls. "I want to just go home," she said without raising her head.

"Everyone will understand," May's tone indicated that they'd better.

"Give me a week or so before you reschedule," Pepper said. Then her grip on Nettie tightened. "How am I supposed to keep this from happening again?" she cried.

"We'll look into that Strange guy," Rhodey said. "If he checks out maybe he can give us some pointers on defending against magic."

"We must speak with him regardless," Vision said. "He saw Nettie use her powers."

Pepper looked up from Nettie and shook her head. "I won't be responsible for people turning to fetal experimentation to get the next generation of super soldiers."

May took a deep breath, "Then maybe we should let people think Nettie was hurt in the kidnapping, that we used Extremis to save her the way it was used on Tony to allow the removal of the shrapnel in his chest and the arc reactor. That her powers were a side effect of a known technology with a lousy survival rate. Make her into another lucky, but hard to repeat accident. Like the Serum, for every Rogers or Barnes you get a dozen Red Skulls, Hulks and Abominations."

"In the meantime, the Mind Stone appears to grant me some defenses against magic," Vision told Pepper. "There are more Avengers now, enough that they will not be left shorthanded if I accompany you to your future presentations."

During the flight across the Atlantic, Dr. Strange came on the news as he addressed the Accords' committee. "Ms. Stark was taken by a rogue mage. While I was able to retrieve the child I was not able to capture the mage."

"Who was this… person?" the India representative demanded.

"He was wearing a mask, I did not see his face" Strange replied blandly. Then he looked directly into the cameras his voice darkening. "However I will recognize his magic should he ever attempt to use it for another criminal endeavor. And I will ensure that all those capable of recognizing a magic signature will also be able to identify him and stop him should he continue down this path."

"He-" Vision hesitated. "Told the most untrue truth I have ever heard."

"Who was it?" Rhodes asked.

"Victor von Doom of Latveria," Vision stated. "He wished to raise Nettie to rule the world."

"Latveria? Shit, we won't be able to do anything," Rhodes groaned. "There are already so many sanctions on that country, the UN's done everything but build a wall with 'Abandon all hope' warning plaques around their borders and Doom doesn't care. I'll still tell Director Ross what really happened in private, just because we have to play dumb to keep the country-wielding lunatic from trying to start a war doesn't mean we actually have to be dumb."

"If he goes after our Nettie again I'm saying screw it," Happy declared fiercely. "I'll blow him up myself then confess and be perfectly content to consider any punishment worth it."

Back in New York, the Avengers' quinjet was waiting at the airport and flew them directly to the tower. The Keeners, Rhodey's parents, Hope, Peter, Cassie Lang and her mother all descended on them the moment they stepped through the door, sweeping Pepper and Nettie into a massive group hug. Hank and Paxton watched from the outskirts, relieved to see Nettie back but content just to see her.

Harley had even brought the 'Bots out from Malibu to welcome their 'sister' home and once the humans had their immediate fill of hugs they backed away and let Dum-E, U and Butterfingers have their turn to verify that Nettie was safe and sound. But while the 'Bots crowded around, FRIDAY's hologram wavered, sticking to far wall. Amadeus, sitting right beside her, whispered into his phone. Despite giving the physical appearance of sitting beside her, he knew her 'ears' were microphones in the roof, and his phone, not the image beside him.

"I want her in for a check-up first thing in the morning," Dr. Helen Cho declared. "You too Pepper, I know you've been through a lot yourself."

"Bright and early," Pepper promised, bobbing her head.

Peter hugged his Aunt May, "I should have come after the attack in Amsterdam," he said quietly.

"You would have been sleeping, just like Pepper and I were, when it happened," May whispered back.

Peter shrugged, still half-convinced that his spider-sense would have woken him if he'd been there.

"I'm sorry!" FRIDAY blurted out. "I should have done more to protect Nettie. I failed her and you."

Pepper let Marlena have Nettie and walked over to where FRIDAY's image stood, "You did everything you could. You have nothing to be sorry for," she said. Impulsively she moved to put her hand on FRIDAY's shoulders then remembered that the miserable girl standing in front of her was only a hologram.

"I let him take Nettie!" FRIDAY wailed.

Pepper hesitated for the moment then carefully reached out to the image, moving as if to brush FRIDAY's hair out of her eyes and turn her face up to Pepper's. "Listen to me FRIDAY, you didn't let him do anything. He attacked you and took Nettie from you. It wasn't your fault."

To Pepper's surprise, FRIDAY's image adjusted itself in response to Pepper's action, changing her hair so the long bangs were tucked behind her ear as if Pepper really could touch her. "Your tracker was what let us find her so quickly. Don't apologize, you did everything possible to keep Nettie safe and it worked."

"You didn't like the idea of my chipping Nettie," FRIDAY reminded her. "I thought you'd be mad."

"It worked didn't it?" Pepper said. "I'm not mad, you saved Nettie."

"I told you so," Amadeus said. "Now I'll just head downstairs and let you guys have your family reuni-" He walked straight into the elevator door.

FRIDAY bounced on her toes. "I might have initiated lockdown as soon as everyone was inside," she admitted. "It'll only take me a few hours to reverse it."

"It looks like you're invited to the reunion," Rhodes' mother said with a smile at Amadeus and his mother. Then she held out her arms to Nettie, "Now, I need another hug sweetheart! We're all so glad you're safe."

 **Notes:** Going into this story I thought the Lindy Laws came about because of mistakes/inefficiencies during the investigation of the kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh's son contributing to the baby's death. After a little more reading it seems more like everyone bent over backwards because of Lindbergh's fame, then afterwards the laws were passed because of things like avoiding jurisdictional confusion if the kidnappers crossed state lines was just a good idea.


	5. Virtually There

**Virtually There**

As time passed things evolved. The hectic, burn the candle at both ends pace Pepper had maintained throughout her pregnancy eased off as she found that while she could override her body's need for rest even while pregnant she had much more motivation to figure out a way to clear time in her schedule once her daughter was in her arms. Her friendships with Marlena Keener and May Parker flourished. Pepper, always used to being the expert in everything she did, sudden found herself desperately grateful to have friends who'd raised wonderful, kind, intelligent children to seek advice from… And she was equally happy to have Hope to empathize with about unexpectedly finding children a part of their lives although Hope staunchly maintained that changing diapers was not an experience she needed.

On the West Coast Marlena made it pointedly clear that she had no intention of moving into the master suite of the Malibu mansion. She insisted Pepper stay with them whenever she was in the area whether it was to checking in on SI's West Coast offices or to teach Harley to deal with both the media and his responsibilities as a major stockholder in the company. When Pepper tried to decline Marlena simply conspired with Happy to make it happen. She cheerfully set up a nursery in the master suite's sitting room and otherwise refused to change a thing about the rooms Pepper and Tony had shared, leaving their bedroom and an office they'd both used when at home intact.

"I'm guessing you and Tony never planned to have kids," Marlena had told Pepper once. "Every other bedroom in the place is a mile away from the master suite… Trust me you are going to want to keep a closer eye on Nettie than that. Harley and Mercedes would have murdered each other or burned the house down around our ears if I'd left them that much space to get up to things." She rearranged one of the wings until she had a cozy home where the kitchen, living room her bedroom and her children's rooms were all within earshot of each other.

One Saturday morning after attending a conference in LA Pepper dragged herself out of the flood of emails that greeted her every morning and frowned when she glanced at the clock, 'Nettie should be awake and bored senseless with her crib by now,' she thought quickly shutting down her laptop and hurrying to the nursery.

"Harley and I are watching her, Boss-lady," FRIDAY announced, seeing the worried frown on Pepper's face. "We're down in the lab."

"You two aren't demonstrating how to blow things up for an eighteen month old?" Pepper asked, she tried and failed to make the question a joking one.

"I'm not sure about Harley but I have more sense than that," FRIDAY huffed.

Pepper raised a doubtful eyebrow and headed downstairs.

"We did check about this first," FRIDAY said. "Really! It may not be totally age appropriate but Nettie's too smart for baby stuff and way too coordinated for her age group. Did you ever figure out of the coordination was an Extremis-thing or a Boss-thing?"

Pepper shrugged helplessly, because it hadn't just been intelligence that let Tony build a circuit board at the age of four. Most four-year-olds struggled to master enough manual dexterity to write their names legibly and Tony had been able to perform delicate soldering operations.

She opened the door to the basement lab and started down the stairs.

"Now first you turn the screw counterclockwise." Pepper's breath caught at the sound of Tony's voice. "No it's not just a another silly human thing. Would I kid you about that?"

Pepper practically ran down the last few stairs. In the lab a hologram of Tony was teaching Dummy to use a screwdriver. Nearby Nettie was sitting on Harley's lap, the teenager was helping her with physical part as Tony did the same for Dummy.

At eighteen months Nettie had her father's olive complexion and dark, curly hair and her mother's oval face and delicate features. Her eyes were a bright blue but Pepper half-way expected them to darken as she grew older and the auburn highlights in her hair gave it a redder cast than Tony's had been. Nettie's wine-red dress and the matching bow in her hair were fire-retardant, the fabrics on par with what a firefighter would wear. The need for such precautions undeniably came from the Extremis in her DNA. The little girl watched her father's image intently as she tried to mimic what he was doing. Butterfingers, You and Dummy had crowded in behind Harley and Nettie to watch as well.

"Boss-lady?" FRIDAY whispered nervously as she detected tears welling up in Pepper's eyes. "Do you want me to turn it off? Doc Samson said making an interactive hologram wasn't a good idea but recordings are okay."

Not trusting her voice, Pepper shook her head.

"Okay, okay, I admit it, air-guitar is not a vital life skill," the hologram of Tony held up his hands in surrender as Dummy demonstrated then made a noise of protest. "But you had fun learning right?"

The hologram Dummy tilted his arm interrogatively.

"What's fun? Geez you don't ask easy questions do you?" Tony said.

Still at the stairs Pepper glanced up, "But Tony was only seventeen when he built Dummy."

"We thought Nettie would like it better if we used more recent images," FRIDAY said. "Copies of Dummy's memory banks are much easier to modify than organic memories."

"You mean like B.A.R.F.?" Pepper asked.

"Yep," FRIDAY sounded pleased with herself. "We adapted the principle to make videos for Nettie of all the things Boss taught us to do, all five of us. I edited out all references to alcohol or sex," she added virtuously.

"Five? Harley too?" Pepper asked.

FRIDAY hummed an affirmative.

"Fun… Okay well remember how I told you lab chairs must have wheels and demonstrated why?" Tony asked the hologram of Dummy. "I caught you doing 180's the other day. That didn't serve a purpose but it was worth doing anyway, fun's why you like doing that." Both the hologram and the present Dummy did a quick spin in response. Nettie giggled and clapped her hands. She almost dropped the small jeweler's screwdriver Harley had given her in respect for her tiny hands but at the last moment she remembered and clenched it tightly.

"Now back to the subject. Turn the screw counter clockwise, it is not a silly human thing… THIS TIME. It lines things up so you don't cross thread the screw..."

Pepper slipped up stairs and returned with a stack of paperwork. She installed herself on the couch in the corner of the room and went to work with Tony's voice, along with Nettie and Harley's filling the background. And maybe let herself imagine what could have been just for a little while.


	6. Getting to Work

**Getting to Work**

"Agent Romanov!" Hill called. "Mission briefing."

Natasha nodded and followed her upstairs to one of the secure conference rooms. "Director Fury, have a nice vacation?" she asked. A small widening of her eyes the only visible indication of surprise when she saw the one-eyed man sitting at the head of the table.

"Educational," Fury replied with a frown. "Gotta say, coming home was even more so. Imagine my surprise when it turns out that the biggest wild card on my hand picked team turns out to be the only one of you who has any clue of when to dig his heels in and when to bend. And now he's dead."

Natasha looked down. There had been a time when she had argued that Tony had been the one with too much ego to bend but she'd come to understand that Leipzig hadn't been about bending to the will of the group but to the will of the world.

"Thank the gods for Rhodes, if not for him staying the course even after being crippled by your stupidity there wouldn't be any Avengers today. Instead he learned from your fuck-ups and the Avengers are stronger than ever."

"If that's the case, may I ask what the Director wants with me?" Natasha said stiffly. "Unless you just stopped by to dress me down."

"I don't need the Avengers today," Fury replied. "I need an infiltrator who can spotlight sabotage sites for a follow up team."

"Since the Avengers I'm too well known for undercover work," Natasha reminded him.

"The icing on the cake is it's not on Earth," Fury said with an unkind grin. "You didn't want to be subject to questioning about the collateral damage you cause and now no one wants you working in their neighborhood…. Meaning the planet. I've done the preliminaries, humanoids are common enough out there for you to pass. I put together a team to go in with you. Speaking of…."

The other door to the conference room opened. Lady Sif of Asgard walked in followed by a slender young man with scars across his face, obscured by the long, mousy brown bangs falling into eyes. He twitched nervously when he felt Natasha's eyes on him. "Lady Natasha," Sif greeted her. "I look forward to fighting alongside you." She nodded toward her companion, her expression turned disapproving. "This is Vali, Loki taught him Realm-walking before his fall."

"Sif's muscle, Vali's transportation and you're the one with the eyes to know what I'm looking for," Fury said. "Thanos is coming here? Well we're not sitting around and waiting. This Realm-Walking is apparently an all but unheard of art, practiced almost exclusively by Loki. Vali can only promise to put you in the middle of Thanos' empire, you'll have to arrange conventional transportation for yourself from there. But the Guardians of the Galaxy have agreed that we can use their ship and are arranging additional small courier class crafts. We will be able to get strike teams in and out of Thanos' territory within the year. When that time comes you're going to have fed us information on the best place to throw some clogs."

"Sir? Can I have a few days to think this over and to get to know my prospective team?" Natasha asked.

Fury nodded, "Seeing as how poor teamwork and a lack of trust destroyed the last team you were on, I'd recommend it."

* * *

Talking Sif into going drinking was one of the easiest things Natasha had ever done. Sif had been so delighted at the prospect of going out with another female warrior that Natasha invited Maria Hill along at the last moment so Sif would have one 'Shield-Sister' to socialize with who didn't have ulterior motives.

After several tankards Sif leaned back in her chair. "The Avengers held a special place in Thor's heart. Oft times I find myself thinking when he mourns Man of Iron, a part of him is mourning the dissolution of his team as well," she said. "How did such a famed band of warriors come to such an inglorious end?"

Natasha hesitated, not knowing what to say. Maria didn't. "Arrogance," she said, her words slurring slightly after trying to keep up with an Asgardian's drinking for more than one round. Then she turned to Natasha, "You know, no one realistically expected the Accords to turn the lot of you into a bunch of mindless automatons that just did what you were told. Never in his life did Rogers ever respect a chain of command that didn't start with him. Tony Stark was Tony Stark, he blew off a Senate hear and managed to get the audience cheering him on. Thor's an alien prince who was considered a god by our ancestors. Bruce Banner? The Hulk?" Maria snickered. "Even you and Clint were notorious for your creative takes on the concept of following orders. But you used to get it. You and Clint played fast and loose with the rules when you had to but you used to understand the game: Standing in middle of the hanger while Fury torn a strip out of your hide. Filling out reams of paperwork for Coulson explaining yourself. Suffering through those miserable scut work missions you'd get assigned after the big violations so the rest of S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't feel like you guys got special treatment. And when you did make the wrong call you accepted the shorter leash with good grace and worked your butt off to earn back the trust you'd lost.

"There's a difference between breaking the rules when you have to, when you can step up and explain exactly why the rule needed breaking that exact moment, and telling the whole world that the rules simply don't apply to you. The bulk of the Sokovia Accords weren't even asking you to submit to new regulations, they were just asking you to publically acknowledge the existence of laws you'd been routinely breaking. It's not a violation of your freedom to ask you to recognize that you can't go marching into someone else's house, or their country, without their permission! Your rights don't include the freedom to trample on other people's rights, they never did. You forgot that. The United Nations asked Rogers to show that he did recognize that he's not above the law and he blew them off. Got too big for your britches the lot of you." Maria threw back the last fourth of her mug and swayed alarmingly as the motion upset her precarious balance.

Sif and Natasha both reached out to stabilize her. Once Maria was secure on her barstool Sif glanced questioningly at Natasha. "She's not wrong," Natasha sighed. "We always meant well and I stand by most of the decisions we made up thru Lagos... But we didn't stand by our decisions. We didn't stand up and explain why what we did was necessary, we just expected people to accept that, because it was us, it was the right decision. And when they didn't accept it we got offended."

"You are answerable to these people?" Sif asked.

"Yeah," Natasha said. "Maybe not for every decision but ultimately, when things went wrong in a public way, we're answerable to the people."

"Odd," Sif said. "On Asgard we are answerable to the All-Father, for those of lower rank perhaps through their superiors, but ultimately we answer to him. Should he find our answers unsatisfactory there would be consequences, even for his heir. Thor was briefly banished when Odin consider his actions too reckless and headstrong to be tolerated."

Natasha nodded and let it drop. "So this Vali, you said he was Loki's student?" she asked letting her voice fill with skepticism.

Sif grimaced. "The All-Father says Vali can be trusted."

"But?" Natasha pressed.

"He's a conniving, deceitful…" Sif broke off. She took a deep breath. "It's not that I don't understand. When I first started training as a warrior you cannot imagine the number of times I was told that I should go home and tend to my looks."

"Seriously?" Maria asked. "I've decked people for much less."

"I did much the same and eventually they learned to worry more about my fists than my face," Sif said. "There is little that is considered appropriate for a high-born lady without the spark of magic. It was a struggle to convince anyone that I could do more than marry and bear future warriors for the glory of Asgard."

"Idiots, all of them," Maria sympathized and Natasha nodded wishing Sif would get back to Vali.

"If I'd had magic I would have been absorbed into the technical class regardless of my birth," Sif said leaving her audience to wonder if All-speak could glitch. "If I'd had the ability I might have been content with that and never realized my abilities as a warrior."

"So Vali had magic? And he wanted to be a warrior instead of joining the, um, 'technical class'?" Natasha asked.

Sif snorted, "Hardly. When he and his brother came to Asgard from Vanahiem, Narfi joined the guard like a respectable man, Vali disguised himself as a woman and studied magic. We used to think it was cute the way 'she' always followed Loki about like a besotted kitten, we thought 'she' had a crush, but it turned out Loki was teaching Vali his tricks."

Natasha and Maria traded a puzzled look. "Vali had magic and wanted to learn to use it… And that was bad?" Natasha asked.

"I'd have respect for him if he'd walked up and demanded to be trained in magic despite his gender instead he lied and hid his nature." A distasteful look crossed Sif's face. "But what else can you expect from someone who would use magic to fight?"

* * *

"Well?" Fury asked.

"Sif will have a constant eye on Vali and a hand on her sword to take him out at the first sign of betrayal. Which isn't all bad because the only person on Asgard who's done anything to win the guy's loyalty is Loki. I wouldn't exactly blame Vali if he turns out to be harboring a secret desire to screw Asgard over to avenge Loki's death," Natasha reported.

Fury gave her a dark look, "Are you refusing the mission Agent Romanov?"

"I want someone there who I can trust to watch my back," Natasha said. "You know who."

"He's in jail," Fury pointed out. "And can you really trust him to have your back?"

"We didn't have any differences that haven't been resolved. Clint's eligible for parole in six months, don't tell me that you can't swing a measly half year. And like you said, the Accords committee gets to ship us off planet."

"That will sweeten the deal," Fury agreed. "Barton needs to sign or the Accords committee won't even discuss working with him."

"He'll sign," Natasha said.

"And walk away from his family for a mission that is likely to keep him away for a year minimum? I hear Nathan wasn't walking the last time he saw the kid."

* * *

"Clint, I can deal with your absence, I've been dealing with you being gone since our honeymoon was cut short for a mission. I can't deal with your resentment," Laura said.

"What do you mean?" Clint asked, his heart in his throat.

Laura sighed, "If I told you your family needed you I'd be lying. If something happened Natasha and I had asked you to stay with us, would you blame me? Us?"

Clint started to protest then sighed, "This is probably the only way they're going to let me make a difference in what's coming. Maybe just the best way for me to make a difference. I want to protect you guys."

"I know," Laura said. "I told you before, I'm not the type to run. Take care of Nat. Save the world. We'll be here when you get back."

* * *

Clint looked at the other three renegades Avengers and didn't know what to say.

Scott rolled his eyes, "What? You forgot you had the shortest sentence? Stop feeling guilty, you weren't at Bucharest, Berlin or-" he glanced at Steve and decided not to mention Siberia. "Or have my priors. You were always getting out first."

"It still feels wrong," Clint said. It felt disloyal to leave his friends, his team behind but not leaving meant letting Natasha go undercover with a team she couldn't trust to look out for her.

"You're not good company," Sam pointed out with a small grin meant to take the sting out of it.

Steve stepped forward and offer Clint his hand, "Take care of yourself and Natasha out there," he said seriously.

Clint grinned suddenly. "Don't go writing me off yet," he said. "Maybe Nat and I got spoiled doing this Avenger gig and being famous but in S.H.I.E.L.D.? Every agent is expendable, everyone eventually gets a mission with no exit plan. Between the two of us Nat and I did a hundred of those so called suicide mission and every time we nailed it and came back for more. That's what made the two of us legendary at S.H.I.E.L.D. They've got other snipers, other undercover specialists, but Nat and I are fucking weeds. Budapest? They gave us a funeral after Budapest, didn't stop Nat and I from walking into Fury's office two weeks later. So, outer space? Crazy ass Darkside Empire that needs taking down? Maybe I'm a lousy husband and a worse father. The only political statement I'll ever make is going be from behind a sniper scope… And only on someone else's order. But this? Nat and I, we can do this."

* * *

Clint was flown directly from the prison to an isolated S.H.I.E.L.D. base in Montana where he joined the rest of the team as they boarded a compact, heavily shielded hovercraft. Vali took the controls, "I won't be able to get there in one jump," he apologized, His long, light brown hair falling forward to hide his face from them. And then they were in the air.

Vali flew like a madman, sending the ship into twists and turns for no reason the instruments could detect and sometimes flying straight through things that all Clint's senses, not to mention the plane's, swore were solid. Twenty, forty minutes, brief glimpses other places, other realities. Then they were spit out, landing. And Vali's hair was plastered to his face with sweat. "Four hours then we go again," he told them. "Don't go outside."

Natasha cupped her hand against a porthole for a moment. "No danger of that," she said. "What is this place?"

Sif did the same thing then shrugged. "It could be any one of hundreds of planets in the space around Midgard. There was a particularly virulent war, oh twenty thousand years back."

Clint couldn't resist, as Vali stood up and made his way to the bunks at the back of the ship, the archer slid past him to get a good look outside through the pilot's viewpanel. He saw an alien city, slowly crumbling into ruin. It took several more minutes for him to pin down quite why this dead city was so very disquieting but then he got it. There were mummified carcases scattered about, people or animals he wouldn't venture to guess, but they'd died where they'd fallen. There was no evidence of scavenger activity or- "Why aren't the bodies out there rotting?" he asked.

"The bacteria on this planet died at the same time as everything else," Sif replied. "One of the planet-killing weapons used in the war poisoned the atmosphere, rendering a planet incapable of sustaining life in a few hours. There were other weapons that cracked a planet's mantle or ripped away the atmosphere. There were even weapons that would poison a system's star, if we were to pass too close to systems where that weapon was used, this ship would become a floating tomb. It wasn't enough for the warring peoples to kill each other, they wished to render any where their enemy had lived incapable of sustaining life forever after."

"Razed and salted, so that it would never again be built up," Natasha said quietly.

Sif nodded. "As the war approached Midgard it triggered the great unification of Yggdrasil. We feared that the horrible malignance of the weapons they favored would be such that it would spread along the axis of the World Tree, so banded together, even Muspelheim sent aid to drive the war back from Midgard's shores. They turned this area, once thriving with life and trade as it was the junction of two lobes of the galaxy, into a wasteland."

They remained on the dead planet until Vali had his nap, then they took off again. There were two more stops, on similarly lifeless planets before they found themselves on a mountain looking down at a vast sprawling city. The mountain had been carved into the image of a massive being seated on a throne, glowering down at the city sprawled at his feet. Vali had landed their ship in the crevasse beneath the titanic statue's multi-clefted chin.

Natasha looked down at the city below. "Guess it's time to get to work," she said.

 **Notes:** The names Vali and Narfi come from a particularly disturbing bit of Norse Mythology: Then were taken Loki's sons, Váli and Nari or Narfi; the Æsir changed Váli into the form of a wolf, and he tore asunder Narfi his brother. And the Æsir took his entrails and bound Loki with them over the three stones.

They aren't Loki's kids in my story but...


End file.
